


Desert Fox Triumphant: Rommel beats the Allies in June 1944

by KaijuHobbit22



Category: No Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Blood and Gore, Explosions, F/M, Gun Violence, Historical Accuracy, Historical Figures, Minor Original Character(s), Other, Rommel defeats the Allies in Normandy, War Crimes, World War II
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2019-11-07 18:11:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 55
Words: 68,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17965547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaijuHobbit22/pseuds/KaijuHobbit22
Summary: This is heavily-based on the book 'Disaster at D-Day' by Peter Tsouras, due to me being a fan of his WW2 AU stories. I'm also a great admirer and deep respect for Erwin Rommel, the man who in real-life was well known for leaving an unparalleled legacy of humanity and chivalry on the battlefield. Also, his Afrika Korps was never accused of ANY war crimes and treated their POWs humanely. And when he was implicated in the failed July 20th Plot to kill Hitler, Rommel was given the choice to commit suicide in exchange that both his wife and son would be spared from the Gestapo. And to this day, many people in Germany considered him as a patriot to his country and not a Nazi.Now, my sources are drawn from Ospery Publishing, Flames of War, Niehorster.org, Feldgrau.com and AxisHistory.com.





	1. Prologue: Exercise Tiger

**Author's Note:**

> German ranks will be in italics.
> 
> If they are any errors, please send me a review or comment on that.
> 
> Any word that you see with this symbol:* means that you have to look into the notes at the end of the chapter.

**(Lyme Bay, off the**   **coast of Devon, England, April 28th, 1944)**

Convoy T-4 (consisting of three  _LST-1_ -Class Tank Landing Ships, four  _LST-491_ -Class Tank Landing Ships, and all eight of them were protected by HMS  _Azalea_ , a  _Flower_ -Class Corvette) was heading in single-file through the calm sea at a speed of 6-8 knots towards the landing beaches at Slapton Sands. The convoy was taking part in Exercise  _Tiger_ , the final rehearsal before the proposed landings on Utah Beach on D-Day. The LSTs (Tank, Landing Ship) were carrying the support vehicles and combat engineers of the 1st Engineer Special Brigade. It was just after midnight as the entire convoy stood to 'General Quarters' as they were faint against a low-quarter moon that was about to set and were currently waiting for the minutes to fall away until H-Hour kicked off the landings, and were completely unaware that the enemy had spotted them.

Earlier the previous evening, nine E-Boats* (six of them were part of the 5th Fast Attack Boat Flotilla and the remaining three from the 9th respectively) under the command of  _Korvettenkapitan_ (Lieutenant-Commander) Bernd Klug* had left the French port of Cherbourg on a routine patrol, seeking to interfere with any Allied naval traffic in the English Channel. Having managed to elude a good number of British patrols and the single Royal Navy corvette that was guarding the convoy before approaching the American ships undetected. At first, Klug (who was on board the E-Boat,  _S-150_ ) thought he had come across a line of destroyers, so he decided to launch 'hit-and-run' attack which would allow his very maneuverable motor torpedo boat to veer away after they had launched their 21-inch torpedoes and withdraw at speed to evade the devastating fire that would be sure to follow from the warships.

At 0204 hours, all hell broke loose when the two torpedoes from E-Boats  _S-130_ and  _S-150_ respectively hit the hull of LST- _507_ , causing said landing craft to burst into flames as she lurched to a stop and began to sink. As the horrified men aboard LST- _531_ watched, their own ship was struck by two torpedoes launched from E-Boat  _S-145_ that was under the command of  _Leutnant zur See_ (Ensign) Karl von Marwitz, causing said LST to capsize and sink in just six minutes. LST- _289_ was the next to be hit by  _S-150_ , but swift damage-control enabled the LST to stay afloat and make it to shore. These explosions alerted the crews on the other ships to the danger amongst them and the air was soon crisscrossed with fire from their guns. In the ensuing chaos, LST- _511_ was badly damaged by friendly fire. As soon as the E-Boats had made their attack, they turned for home and slipped away into the night completely unscathed.

As Klug, von Marwitz (he and his crew of _S-145_  were later awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class for their first successful kill on an enemy ship) and the other E-Boat crews were celebrating their successful patrol at their favorite bar in Cherbourg, they left behind two LSTs sunk and another two badly damaged, along with 198 American naval servicemen and 441 combat engineers of the 1st Engineer Special Brigade dead. HMS  _Azalea_ and the remaining LSTs were in flight back to Plymouth. Only small landing craft remained in the area to pull the survivors from out of the water.

The Allies immediately clamped a lid of secrecy over the disaster so effectively that the Germans didn't learned of the extent of their own victory until after the war. Among the small ranks of Allied officers with a 'need-to-know' basis, even the most rational man couldn't but feel the chilling dread of premonition. But most soldiers aren't rationalists at heart. They are believers, even if down deep in fate. And this night's omen was evil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *E-Boats is the Allied name for the German Schnellboot or S-Boot/Boat.
> 
> *He was the commanding officer of the 5th Fast Attack Boat Flotilla.


	2. The Chest Pieces fill the Board: The Germans

The Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) have exhausted their resources in the West. The Luftwaffe (Air Force) and Kriegsmarine (Navy) had been broken by the superior production capabilities and manpower of the Allies. The Luftwaffe no longer dared to conduct any reconnaissance flights over the U.K, and the Kriegsmarine's major weapon, the U-Boat, had lost the Battle of the Atlantic. The once mighty Luftwaffe, increasingly shorn of operational units, began to transfer more and more idled ground personnel into the Luftwaffe Field Divisions, light infantry by any name and not very good ones, under Heer (Army) operational control. At the opposite end of the scale, more Luftwaffe resources were being poured into creating more Fallschirmjager Divisions, elite formations of high-quality paratroopers with high spirits and skills, and were equipped even more lavishly than the Waffen-SS by  _Reichsmarschall_ (Marshal of the Reich) Hermann Goring's vanity.

As the ultimate decisive battle in the West approached, both the Germans and the Allies along both sides of the English Channel.  _Generalfeldmarschall_ (Field Marshal) Gerd von Rundstedt, head of OB West, had made his case in November 1943 that significant reinforcements were vital if Germany was to have a chance to defeat the upcoming invasion. For the past two years, his command had served as a comfortable billet and replacement pool for the meat-grinding Eastern Front. Hitler agreed to the old Prussian's logic and reinforcements irregularly started moving West. Static divisions, made up of over-and-underaged men, ethnic Germans, the practically unfit, and Ostruppen* had become a large part of von Rundstedt's command. In the spring of 1944, veteran infantry divisions began arriving. All of them were burnt-out husks from either the Eastern or Italian Fronts to be rebuilt around their veteran cadres of officers and NCOs with new conscripts. One such formation was the newly-formed 352nd Infantry Division* under the command of  _Generalleutnant_ (Major-General) Dietrich Kraiss. He and his veterans, employing that unique German talent for reconstruction, quickly transformed a large draft of 18 and 19-year-old Saxons from the Hanover Region into a tough and cohesive division. The arrival of the striking power of the German ground forces: eleven panzer divisions and one panzergrenadier division of the Heer and Waffen-SS, was the real proof of Hitler's determination to defend his Western conquests. Among them were the greatest of Germany's panzer formations. First place was claimed by the 1st SS Panzer Division 'Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler', originally built from Hitler's SS bodyguard regiment. Deadly, ferocious and utterly ruthless, the 1st SS Panzer was also the mother of unparalleled warriors that were sent as cadres for many newly-formed SS divisions. The 2nd SS Panzer Division 'Das Reich' was the 1st SS Panzer's twin brother, and both were destined to fight as part of the 1st SS Panzer Korps under the command of  _SS-Oberstgruppenfuhrer_ (4-Star General) Josef 'Sepp' Dietrich. Before joining the Nazi Party in 1928, Dietrich was a highly-decorated WW1 veteran (having been awarded both the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class) and later the Freikorps. The other major SS formation scheduled for the West was  _SS-Obergruppenfuhrer_ (Lieutenant-General) Paul Hausser's 2nd SS Panzer Korps with the 9th SS Panzer Division 'Hohenstaufen' and the 10th SS Panzer Division 'Frundsberg'. From volunteers from the 1st SS Panzer, the 12th SS Panzer Division 'Hitlerjugend' was raised and filled with enthusiastic, fit and indoctrinated teenagers from the Hitler Youth. The average enlisted age was seventeen-and-a-half. Also newly-raised was the only panzergrenadier division in the west: the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division 'Gotz von Berlichingen'*. The Heer's panzer might was represented by two of its best-equipped divisions: the 2nd Panzer and the Panzer Lehr Divisions, with the latter raised originally from the panzer arm's demonstration units. The command of the Panzer Lehr Division had fallen to the Afrika Korps' former Chief-of-Staff,  _Generalleutnant_ Fritz Bayerlein. Another veteran of the North Africa Campaign, the surrendered 21st Panzer Division, was reconstituted around a core of veterans from that gallant unit. And finally, the 9th, 11th and 116th Panzer Divisions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Ostruppen are made up of conscripted Poles, Ukrainians, Georgians, Eastern Europeans and pressed Red Army POWs.
> 
> *The 352nd Infantry Division's cadre and a good part of its officers and NCOs were from both the 268th and 321st Infantry Divisions that were destroyed on the Eastern Front.
> 
> *Named after the 15th Century German knight and mercenary who was known for the defiant taunt: 'Leck mich am arsch' which means 'Kiss or lick my ass'.


	3. The Chest Pieces fill the Board: The Allies

The British had kept a good number of their divisions at home as a garrison for the beleaguered isles in case of a possible invasion. If they had seen combat like the 3rd Infantry Division had, it had been four years before in the short campaign in France that ended at Dunkirk. The Canadian 3rd Infantry Division had a very special injury to brood over while it kept on training. Their sister division, the Canadian 2nd Infantry, was badly decimated at the Dieppe Raid in August 1942, in the Allies' experiment to test the feasibility of capturing a deep-water port to support an amphibious invasion.

Most of the American divisions arriving in the U.K in the spring of 1944 were inexperienced in combat. The first unit to arrive was the U.S Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Division. This untested division was to be tipped with six veteran British and American divisions that were transferred from the Mediterranean Theatre. The British 8th Army sent four of its most experienced units: the 'Desert Rats' of the 7th Armoured Division, the 'Red Devils' of the 1st Airborne Division, the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, and the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division*. Joining the British divisions were the pride of the U.S Army: the 1st Infantry Division* and the 2nd Armored Division, with both of them have been blooded and honoured. Both the Northumbrians and the Big Red One were selected due to their successes in amphibious operations, this caused some bitterness among the troops who felt that they had done enough when the others had done nothing.

Aside from the infantry and armored divisions, the Allies had massed two airborne corps for the invasion: the British 1st Airborne Corps and the U.S 18th Airborne Corps. The British 1st Airborne Division had won a considerable reputation in Tunisia and Sicily as had the American 82nd Airborne Division under commanders like Major-Generals Robert 'Roy' Urquhart and Matthew Ridgeway. Each veteran division was joined by an inexperienced but eager twin: the British 6th Airborne and the American 101st Airborne.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The Highlanders had of some might've called a bitter relationship with Rommel. During the 1940 French Campaign, the 51st had been cut off from the British Expeditionary Force's retreat to Dunkirk and and they, along with the French 70th Alpine Division, were forced to capitulate at the port town of St. Valery-en-Caux after a fierce and bitter struggle. Their conqueror had been a rising general with an uncanny gift for armored warfare, Erwin Rommel. In August of that year, the 9th (Highland) Infantry Division (the 51st Highland Division's 2nd Line Territorial Army duplicate, which it helped form) was reorganize and re-designated as the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division, and served with the British 8th Army from the Second Battle of El Alamein onwards, extracting some payback for their defeat at St. Valery-en-Caux.
> 
> *Also known as 'the Big Red One'.
> 
> *Also known as the 'Hell on Wheels' Division. The 2nd Armored was the first U.S armored division to be formed and was personally trained by Patton himself before the war.


	4. The Chest Pieces fill the Board: The Commanders

Hitler and the Allies instinctively chose to command their armies in this great battle have already fought before:  _Generalfeldmarschall_ Erwin Rommel, the 'Desert Fox', and General Bernard 'Monty' Montgomery.

As a young man, nobody could have predicted Erwin Rommel's outstanding military career. His first major success was back when he was an  _Oberleutnant_ (First-Lieutenant) in 1917 at the Battle of Caporetto, where his Royal Wurttemberg Mountain Battalion (made up of only 150 men) forced the 10,000 men of the Italian 1st Infantry Division (who were convinced they had been surrounded by an  _entire_ German division) to surrender at the loss of six dead and thirty wounded. This earned him the German Army's highest military award for valor: the Pour le Merite. As a _Generalmajor_ (Brigadier-General) during the Battle of France in 1940, Rommel saw himself carving out a reputation as a master of modern armoured warfare when commanding the newly-formed 7th Panzer Division (and was later awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross* on May 27th). In North Africa, he was to make the world his audience, and the British solider as one of his greatest admirers for his brilliance no less than his chivalry. So thoroughly that he had won the moral ascendancy over the enemy that British Army commanders were driven to forbid the common use of the term 'a Rommel' to describe any action particularly and imaginatively well-done.

Despite being a small, hawkish man, Bernard Montgomery had chosen to reestablish the British solider's fate in himself and his commanders. A man with a singleminded professionalism, he had personally distinguished himself back when he was a Major-General and commanding the British 3rd Infantry Division in a rearguard action in the retreat to Dunkirk. He also possessed the uncanny ability of instilling a sense of trust in his subordinates, which helped him (now as a Lieutenant-General) turned the British 8th Army around and defeat Rommel and his Panzer Army Afrika at the Second Battle of El Alamein and chased the 'Desert Fox' across North Africa. Montgomery's successes in concluding the North Africa Campaign, and later in Sicily and Southern Italy, had made him the daring hero of the British people and their army. After years of shameful defeats, he embodied victory. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was the highest award in both the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany. It was only awarded for either bravery on the battlefield or successful/outstanding leadership. In order to qualify for this award, the soldier had to hold both the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class. The Knight's Cross were awarded in five grades:
> 
> Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
> 
> Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
> 
> Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
> 
> Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds
> 
> Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds
> 
> Rommel was awarded the Oak Leaves with Swords and Diamonds to his Knight's Cross on March 11th, 1943 when he was commander-in-chief of Army Group Afrika.


	5. The Chest Pieces fill the Board: The Commanders' appraisal of the Situation

With an eerie coincidence, both Montgomery and Rommel submitted their first personal appraisals on the strategic requirements of their new commands to their political masters in December of 1943. Both men brought both a fresh approach and a master's touch, and both rejected the bases of currently existing plans and assumptions.

Rommel had just finished his exhaustive inspection of the coastal fortifications of the so-called 'Atlantic Wall' that ran from Norway to Spain. His report read:

'We can hardly expect a successful counterattack by the few reserves we currently have behind the coast at the moment, with no assault guns and an inadequate number of anti-tank weapons, in order to succeed in eliminating the powerful force that the Allies will land. We know from our experiences in both Sicily and Italy, is that the British soldier is quick to consolidate his gains and then holds on very tenaciously with excellent support from the Royal Air Force and naval gunfire support from the Royal Navy, the forward observers for which can direct the fire from the front line.

With the coastline being held as thinly as it is, the Allies will succeed in creating several bridgeheads at several different points and achieving a major penetration of our beach defenses. Once this happens, it will only be by the rapid intervention of our operational reserves that the Allies will be thrown back into the sea. This requires that these forces should be held very close behind the coastal defenses'.

These observations were heavily-based on his personal observation of the crippling effectiveness by the overwhelming Allied air power on German ground operations.

Montgomery had just finished reviewing the plans prepared in London for the invasion at Winston Churchill's personal request. His report read:

'My first impression is that the current plan is impracticable. From my point of view, the following points are essential:

The initial landings MUST be made on the widest front as possible.

One British army to land on a two, or possibly, three corps front. One American army similarly.

The air campaign over the invasion area must be won before the operation is launched, and then we must aim at our success in the land battle by the spread and speed of our operations'.


	6. The Chest Pieces fill the Board: Advantages and Disadvantages

Both men were allotted similar roles under a theatre commander. Montgomery was appointed commander of the British 21st Army Group which would conduct the Allied invasion. He would command the British 2nd Army under Lieutenant-General Sir Miles Dempsey and the U.S 1st Army under Lieutenant-General Omar Bradley. The 1st Canadian and 3rd U.S Armies would follow his army group, and a separate 12th U.S Army Group would be formed. His superior was U.S 4-Star General Dwight Eisenhower, who was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, and have overall command of all ground, air, and sea forces.

Rommel was given command of Army Group B that consisted of the 7th (commanded by  _Generaloberst_ (Colonel-General/4-Star General) Friedrich Dollmann) and the 15th (commanded by  _Generaloberst_ Hans von Salmuth) Armies, on a front from Holland to the Loire River. In Southern France, the 1st (commanded by  _General der Infanterie_ (General of the Infantry/Lieutenant-General) Kurt von der Chevallerie) and 19th (commanded by  _General der Infanterie_ Georg von Sodenstern) Armies were formed into Army Group G (commanded by  _Generaloberst_ Johannes Blaskowitz).  _Generalfeldmarschall_ Gerd von Rundstedt had overall command of all German ground forces in the West.

Neither Rommel or Montgomery would have direct command over the air and naval forces in the theatre.

The remarkable similarities in their situations ceased at this point. Montgomery was working within one of the most cooperative and efficient alliances in history, and within a chain command that functioned rationally. Although he had some professional disagreements, a few of them bitter, with his peers and colleagues at SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force), the system consistently supported his efforts to plan and prepare for the final concept of the invasion. And he was given both the widest latitude and initiative.

Von Rundstedt, on the other hand, didn't have overall command of  _any_ air or naval forces, and had to worked within the Wehrmacht High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or OKW) which had been both morally and professionally distorted by the evil genius of Adolf Hitler. Navy Group West (under the command of  _Admiral_ (4-Star Admiral) Theodor Krancke), which controlled all of the German naval vessels in France, along with all of the land-based naval units, naval coastal artillery battalions and FlaK batteries along the French Atlantic coast, was subordinated to Navy High Command (Oberkommando der Marine or OKM). Luftflotte 3 or 3rd Air Fleet (under the command of  _Generalfeldmarschall_ Hugo Sperrle), which not only controlled all the fighter, bomber and reconnaissance aircraft in the West, but also all of the Luftwaffe FlaK and radar units as well, was subordinated to Luftwaffe High Command (Oberkommando der Luftwaffe or OKL). The Fuhrer's chain of command ran down from OKW to Army High Command (Oberkommando der Heer or OKH), then to Von Rundstedt at OB West's HQ at the Chateau de Saint-Germain-en-Laye and finally to Rommel at his Army Group B's HQ at the Chateau de La Roche-Guyon. The reality that the Desert Fox had was that the unity of command of his entire army group was badly compromised. He couldn't move a single division without Hitler's express permission, and the Fuhrer was involving himself in every detail and muddied the concept of operations to meet the invasion. Rommel didn't even control most of the panzer divisions that were held in reserve to counterattack the landings. That was the domain of the commander of Panzer Group West,  _General der Panzertruppen_ (General of Panzer Troops/Lieutenant-General) Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg, who reported directly to von Rundstedt.

The great major issue that the Germans weren't able to resolve before the invasion was the concept and timing of the counterattacks that would drive the Allied invasion force back into the sea. Rommel was very adamant that the panzer divisions and the other operational reserves should be held closely behind the coast, due to the fact that Allied air power would harry and bleed out those that were deeper inland as they tried to move forward, delaying them so that they would arrive too understrength and too late to stop the invasion. Both von Rundstedt and von Schweppenburg, on the other hand, had never been in command under enemy air superiority, and thus tended to discount Rommel's warning. They wanted to have the panzer reserves be held deeper inland (and out of the range of Allied naval gunfire, remembering how their counterattacks at Sicily, Salerno and Anzio were stopped cold by naval gunfire) so that they would be able to move to any sector on the threatened front. Hitler never endorsed one or the others' position, and decided to compromise instead. Rommel was given control of the 12th SS Panzer, 21st Panzer and the Panzer Lehr Divisions. Von Rundstedt and von Schweppenburg would retain control of the 2nd, 9th, 11th and 116th Panzer Divisions. But the 1st SS, 2nd SS, 9th SS, 10th SS Panzer and 17th SS Panzergrenadier Divisions could only move forward by Hitler's express permission. Rommel wanted to put all three of his panzer divisions behind the coastal defenses in Normandy between the rivers Orne and Vire, but Hitler intervened again to micromanage affairs, by ruling that Rommel could move only one division forward: the 21st Panzer, directly behind the front. It wasn't until late May that Rommel was finally able to extract permission from the Fuhrer to move the 12th SS Panzer Division to the Normandy coast as well. But Hitler was very adamant that the Panzer Lehr Division was to remain inland in the area between Chartres and Le Mans.

In divining the main location of the invasion, which was the great question facing the Germans and one that the Allies took great pains to hide it from them, Rommel was at first convinced by conventional wisdom that the Allied invasion would come from the shortest distance across the English Channel, straight at the Pas-de-Calais. That region of France not only offered the shortest road into Germany, but it was also the sight of the mysterious 'wonder weapons' that Hitler had promised would make the British weep for peace. Naturally, the Allies would strike there. But as the winter of 1943 turned into the spring of 1944, Hitler's vaunted intuition seemed to make a comeback when he heard of the Slapton Sands incident in one of his morning briefings. The Fuhrer was surprisingly a keen hand in typography and immediately recognized the similarities between the beaches at Slapton Sands to those on the Cotentin Peninsula. He sensed more than analyzed that Normandy might be the sight of a major diversionary landing. Rommel's increasing familiarity with his sector had also made him change his mind to the degree that he thought at the very least that the Allies would conduct major airborne landings in Normandy. Units that had been going consistently to reinforce the 15th Army at the Pas-de-Calais now began to be assigned to the 7th Army. The 91st Airlanding* and the 243rd Static Divisions, along the 100th Panzer Replacement and Training Battalion*, were moved to the Cotentin Peninsula. In March, the 352nd Infantry Division and the 7th Nebelwerfer Brigade were also assigned to the Calvados coast, between the Vire and Orne Rivers and the responsibility of  _General der Artillerie_ (General of Artillery/Lieutenant-General) Erich Marcks, commanding officer of the 7th Army's 84th Army Korps. Rommel also specifically ordered that Kraiss' division take over a section of the coastal defenses manned by the 716th Static Division. Hitler's interest was the key to approving the move of both the 21st Panzer and the 12th SS Panzer Divisions, along with  _Oberst_ (Colonel) Werner von Kistowski's 431st FlaK Regiment* (with thirty-six 88mm FlaK 41 L/71 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Guns*, fifty-four 20mm FlaK 38 L/56 Autocannons and nine 37mm FlaK 37 L/57 Autocannons) from the 3rd Air Fleet's 3rd FlaK Korps, up behind the coast to support Marcks' Korps.

Montgomery would've been appalled at Rommel's major difficulties. It still would have been cruel to inform the Desert Fox of his British adversary's scope for action. Montgomery essentially threw out the plans that were already prepared for the invasion. Using every single bit of authority that he had been given to plan, prepare and conduct the invasion, he took on it even more and was supported because he manifestly  _knew_ what he was doing. He had already identified the main essentials for the invasion concept. Now he devised the strategic plan that would underline all else. The British 2nd Army would land with three divisions (two British and one Canadian) abreast on a two-corps (British 1st and 30th Corps) front west of the Orne River. The Americans would land with two divisions as the lead elements of the U.S 5th and 7th Corps further west. The two bridgeheads would link up into a solid lodgement as quickly as possible. The British-Canadian sector, being closer to open tank country and 150 miles closer to Paris than the Americans, would attract the strategic priority of the Germans and most of their panzer reserves. The mission of the British 2nd Army was to hold both this attention and the panzers while the U.S 1st Army built up enough sufficient forces for a major breakout of the lodgement which in turn would envelop the Germans that were concentrated against the British and the Canadians. There was a strategic elegance in both the simplicity and practicality of the plan.

Montgomery also had another priceless advantage over Rommel. Although neither man had operational control over the naval and air forces in the theatre, Montgomery had both the fullest support and cooperation of both Royal Navy Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay (Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Naval Expeditionary Force) and Royal Air Force Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory (Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Air Force) in both the planning and conduct of operations. Rommel, on the other hand, had to deal with national commanders of these services who were very jealous of their authority to the point of obstruction of the war effort. But by the spring of 1944, the cooperation of the increasingly impotent Kriegsmarine (whose Commander-in-Chief was  _Grossadmiral_ (Grand Admiral) Karl Donitz) and Luftwaffe (whose Commander-in-Chief was  _Reichsmarschall_ Hermann Goring) were of questionable value. Montgomery, however, had call on massive air and naval fleets of unsurpassed power and capability.

But the greatest advantage, without a doubt, possessed by Montgomery over Rommel was the ability to read the Desert Fox's thoughts. The Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park (led by Alan Turing) had succeeded in breaking the coded messages from the seemingly 'unbreakable' German Enigma electromechanical rotor-cipher machine. Enigma was in use throughout the Wehrmacht as the ultimate in secured radio communications. The exploitation of this ability was codenamed 'Ultra', and the Allies had taken priceless advantage of it in the Mediterranean Theatre where radio communications was extremely vital. However, the Western European Theatre was more of a problem. Active operations had ceased in 1940, and four years of comfortable garrison conditions have allowed the Germans to install telephone, telegram and other landline communications throughout the occupied countries. Prior to D-Day, Ultra was reading very little to nothing from OB West. The destruction/disruption of the landline systems in order to drive German communications into the vulnerable air was a very high priority for the few days prior to the invasion.

In the advantages and disadvantages listed so far, Rommel had come off a poor second. In one area, he still retained a sharp and frustrating lead. The German soldier consistently keeps demonstrating overall qualities of aggressive leadership, offensive-mindedness and initiative at every level than his American and British counterparts. One senior British Army officer asked in complete exasperation of how it was that they were reading the enemy's mail and still haven't beaten him. The answer was in the mettle of the German soldier. Field Marshal Harold Alexander (Commander-in-Chief of the 15th Army Group in Italy) noted of the Americans:

'They simply don't know their job as soldiers, and in this case, from the general officer to the enlisted man. Perhaps the  _weakest_ link of all is the junior officer, who just doesn't lead, and with the result that their men don't really fight'.

If the Americans lacked a consistently good junior officer to follow, the Commonwealth soldier, particularly the British, all too often lose heart and gave up ground when his officers were killed or wounded. So noted was this characteristic that German snipers were making it a priority to kill British junior officers in Italy. After D-Day, one American battalion commander paid the Germans the  _ultimate_ compliment, although he was dealing with the elite Fallschirmjagers in the bocage:

'You know, those Germans are the best soldiers I ever saw. They're smart and they don't know what the word "fear" means. They come in and they keep on coming until they get their job done or you'll kill 'em...If they had as many people as we have, they could come right through us any time they made up their minds to do it'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The 91st Airlanding Division was formed in January 1944 to take part of Operation Fir Tree, an aborted airborne operation in Scandinavia that was planned for March of that year. Unlike the Fallschirmjager formations, it was an Heer (Army) formation rather than a paratrooper one, and its configuration was somewhat similar to a Gebirgsjager (Mountain) Division due to the fact that its equipment was tailored towards light weight and portability. When it arrived at the Cotentin Peninsula, it didn't have its 1059th Grenadier Regiment and had to substitute its missing regiment by detaching the 6th Fallschirmjager Regiment from the 2nd Fallschirmjager Division.
> 
> *The battalion had nineteen Panzer 35R 731(f)s, eight Panzer 38H 735(f)s, one Panzer 35S 739(f), one Flammpanzer B-2(f), one Panzer IIIH and two Panzergrenadier training companies. The Panzer 35R 731(f) was the German designation for the Renault R35 Light Infantry Tank. The Panzer 38H 735(f) was the German designation for the Hotchkiss H39D Light Calvary Tank. The H39D was basically an upgraded Hotchkiss H35B armed with the long-barreled 37mm SA38 L/35 Cannon instead of the short-barreled 37mm SA18 L/21. German depot units had modified the war-booty French tanks in several ways. The original French Hotchkiss lacked an opening turret cupola, using instead a closed dome for observation. Tactical German doctrine favored the use of turret hatches, and as a result, the German depot units cut off the tops of the French domed cupola and replaced them with split hatches. The Hotchkiss retained the rear turret hatch, which allowed the commander to travel outside the vehicle while in transit. Another change to the German Hotchkiss was the substitution of German tank radios. The Panzer 35S 739(f) was the German designation for the Somua S35 Medium Calvary Tank. One of the best tanks of the French Army in 1940. These had many of the same modifications as both the Hotchkiss and Renault R35s, and were more popular with German tank crews because of the greater interior hull volume and the better long-barreled 47mm SA35 L/34 Cannon. The Flammpanzer B2(f) was the German designation for Char B1 bis Medium Tank that was converted into a flamethrower tank. The 47mm SA35 L/34 Cannon in the turret was retained but the hull-mounted 75mm SA35 L/17 Howitzer was replaced by the Flammenwerfer-Spritzkopf (flamethrower spray head) in a ball fitting.
> 
> *Renamed as the 1st FlaK Assault Regiment on June 18th.
> 
> *The FlaK 41 fired the more powerful 88x855mmR cartridge round instead of the 88x571mmR cartridge round used by the FlaK 18/36/37.


	7. The Chest Pieces fill the Board: Traitor or Patriot?

In the list of Rommel's difficulties, none had become more ultimately dangerous to Germany than the continued leadership of Adolf Hitler himself. The Desert Fox owed his very rise to the Fuhrer's patronage. He had been an enthusiastic supporter of Hitler in the 1930s, like so many German officers who saw in him the return to German pride and order. Rommel had first come to Hitler's attention with his brilliant account of small unit leadership in the First World War:  _Infantry Attacks_ *. That had been the road that led him to his command of the 7th Panzer Division*, then the Afrika Korps, later the Panzer Group Afrika/Panzer Army Afrika/German-Italian Panzer Army, to become the youngest German officer (at the age of 50) to receive the rank of  _Generalfeldmarschall_ , and finally commanding Army Group Afrika (consisting of the 5th Panzer Army and the Italian 1st Army). But as the honors grew, so did his doubts about Hitler's leadership. Hadn't the Fuhrer's 'victory or death' order at the Second Battle of El Alamein lead to the defeat at said battle? Hadn't the 'hold at all costs' order around Tunis and Bizerte in Tunisia led to the loss of Army Group Afrika and his beloved Afrika Korps? Now worse doubts began to assailed him. Rommel had forbidden the oppression of the Jews throughout his area of operations in North Africa and left an unparalleled legacy of humanity and chivalry on the battlefield, but the general officer grapevine spoke of more darker and hideous things. He also forbade his son, Manfred, to join the Waffen-SS as the young man suggested. The Desert Fox didn't want him associated with a paramilitary organization that was committing mass-murder on the Eastern Front.

All of these doubts found a receptive ear in his new Chief-of-Staff at Army Group B,  _Generalleutnant_ Hans Speidel (a fellow Swabian like Rommel). Speidel was Rommel's conduit to the anti-Hitler opposition in the Wehrmacht and the German political establishment. He was heartened by the existence of like-minded patriots* who wanted to save Germany before she was grounded down from both East and West. The issue wasn't whether to remove Hitler, but how? The conspirators in Berlin were determined to kill him, but their nerve and powers of conspiracy, along Hitler's infernal devil's luck, had protected him. Rommel had strongly objected to Hitler's murder and insisted that he be arrested and brought before a German court. Speidel and his co-conspirators tried they're very best to talk him around to the necessity of assassination. The very idea of putting Hitler on trial was ridiculous, but worse, it was extremely dangerous to leave him alive to rally his followers and was sure to provoke civil war. But the Desert Fox was obstinate on this point.

Whatever action they took, it had to be soon. The invasion was at hand. Every bright and clear day was dreaded now that the weather window was yawning wider and wider. Rommel and Speidel meet the conspirators secretly at Army Group B's HQ to draft a memorandum to serve as the basis to end the war. If Hitler was arrested and removed from power, Rommel was very convinced that Germany could negotiate a truce with the Western Allies. They were willing to pay the price of evacuating all of occupied Western Europe and pulling the Nazi Party system out by its roots. But danger lay ahead if the invasion thrust itself ahead of the plot. A successful invasion would open the Fatherland to both inevitable defeat and occupation by the Western Allies, and worst of all, the savage Soviets. But a sound defeat of the invasion, on the other hand, would give Germany a strong negotiating position with the Western Allies, but only if Hitler was removed. To leave him in power after such a victory would only just feed his megalomania, and the war would drag on for years until Germany's inevitable ruin.

At the meeting, Speidel inquired (once out of Rommel's presence) on how the Berlin group planned to assassinate Hitler if it came to that. When he was told it would be two captured SOE-supplied Nobel 808 Plastic Explosives inside a briefcase with a timed detonator, he was very worried. Only General Staff officers and politicians in Berlin would think of a small solution. It was then that Speidel remembered a famous quote from the American lecturer and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson: 'When you strike a king, you must be very sure to kill him'.

The next morning, Speidel then asked his staff to find him a highly-skilled and experienced demolitions expert.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Rommel's book of aggressive, small unit leadership still remains a classic to this day.
> 
> *Actually his first command in WW2 was in August of 1939 when Hitler appointed Rommel (newly-promoted to Generalmajor) to be in charge of a new battalion being organized to function as his personal escort to the front. This lead to the formation of the Fuhrer Begleit (Escort) Battalion (the men that were hand-picked were from the Heer's elite Grossdeutschland Motorized Infantry Regiment). It had the task of protecting Hitler's military headquarters and accompanying him when visiting the battlefronts, and were also responsible for all of the luggage that travelled with the Fuhrer and his staff.
> 
> *The other main conspirator in France was General der Infanterie Carl-Heinrich von Stulpnagel, the German Wehrmacht Governor of occupied France. Also with him was Claus von Stauffenberg's cousin, Luftwaffe Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant-Colonel) Caesar von Hofacker, who was Stulpnagel's personal adviser.


	8. The Chest Pieces fill the Board: Countdown to Action

**(Thursday, June 1st)**

The men of the 2nd Battery/1260th Army Coastal Artillery Regiment finally wipe the sweat off their foreheads after moving the final and sixth 155mm K418(f)* Heavy Field Gun into its H771 Gun Casement at Pointe du Hoc before heading on over to the chow line. At the same time, Kampfgruppe Heyna* (consisting of the 352nd Infantry Division's 914th Grenadier Regiment and the 352nd Panzerjager Battalion*) were setting up camp just outside the village of Cricqueville-en-Bessin, while Kampfgruppe Meyer* (consisting of the 352nd Infantry Division's 915th Grenadier Regiment and the 352nd Fusilier Battalion*) had also made camp just outside Bricqueville. Later in the evening, the  _Jaguar_ (a Type 1924/ _Raubtier_ -Class Torpedo Boat under the command of  _Oberleutnant zur See_ (Lieutenant (Junior-Grade)) Heinz-Jurgen Sonnenburg) from the 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla (stationed at Cherbourg) docked at Le Harve for minor repairs and replacement parts.

**(Friday, June 2nd)**

Montgomery addressed his subordinates at his 21st Army Group HQ in the Southwick House (which was also being used as the Advance HQ for SHAEF) near Portsmouth in the afternoon. Eisenhower met him at a private dinner at SHAEF's Main HQ at Camp Griffiss (located within the grounds of Bushy Park in London) before they both returned to the Southwick House for a conference with RAF Group Captain James Stagg, SHAEF's Chief Meteorologist, on the weather for the invasion. There was an ominous depression over Iceland. Nevertheless, Eisenhower decided to continue on with the operation on June 5th with another meeting with Stagg on the weather to be arranged the following morning.

Under the cover of darkness, the divisional HQ of the 12th SS Panzer Division, along with its 12th SS Panzer Regiment, 26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment*, 1st Battalion/12th SS Panzer Artillery Regiment, 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion, and the 12th SS Panzer Signals and 12th SS Panzer Maintenance Battalions have all departed from their assembly areas around Lisieux to the area of Isigny-sur-Mer near the mouth of the Vire River and to the village of Balleroy, located on the road halfway between Saint-Lo and Bayeux. Hitlerjugend's 25th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment and the remaining elements of the division were placed under the 25th's commander,  _SS-Standartenfuhrer_ (Colonel) Kurt Meyer, and were due to join the rest of the division on the 6th of June.

**(Saturday, June 3rd)**

As the weather conditions for the invasion on June 5th were deteriorating badly, Montgomery wrote in his diary:

'My own personal view is that if the sea is calm enough for the Navy to take us there, then we must go; the air forces have had very good weather for all of its preparatory operations and we must accept the fact that we might not be able to do so well on D-Day'.

Eisenhower decided to postpone his decision until the next day.

Before dawn,  _SS-Sturmbannfuhrer_ (Major) Arnold Jurgensen, commander of the 1st Battalion/12th SS Panzer Regiment, settled his fifty Panther G* Medium Tanks into the woods just north of the village of Balleroy, northeast of Saint-Lo, and barely ten miles from the sea. By morning, Jurgensen had his company commanders and their subordinates conducting personal reconnaissance of the roads to the sea.

**(Sunday, June 4th)**

Kraiss introduced the commander of his 916th Grenadier Regiment,  _Oberst_ Ernst Goth, to  _SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer_ (Lieutenant-Colonel) Max Wunsche, commander of the 12th SS Panzer Regiment, over breakfast. Wunsche had expressed a willingness to begin joint-training immediately with the 352nd Infantry Division, and now Kraiss offered him the opportunity to work with the 916th. They were scheduled to conduct a reinforcement exercise the next morning on the coastal defenses manned by the 3rd Battalion/726th Grenadier Regiment*. Wunsche jumped at the chance.

The weather hadn't approved as the Allied commanders met at 4 AM in the morning. It was a somber meeting in the Southwick House. For all of the men, decisiveness had always been the ticket to success. Now they all stood in awe of the decision that lay with Eisenhower. Some of the convoys from the northern part of Britain had already sailed to keep to the invasion schedule of June 5th. Stagg and his meteorological staff predicted formidable wave actions, low clouds and high winds. They also stated that naval gunfire, air support nearly impossible and the handling of smaller landing craft much more difficult. Admiral Ramsey stated that the naval end of the operation could still proceed, but agreed that naval gunfire would be degraded. He took no strong position. RAF Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder, Deputy Supreme Commander, was strongly against going on June 5th. Montgomery, fearing of the effects from the delay, wanted to go regardless of the weather. As the rain beat against the window outside, Eisenhower decided to postpone the invasion for another 24 hours. It also occurred to everyone that if bad weather persisted through June 6th, the next invasion window could be weeks away.

Meanwhile, Rommel was preparing to leave the next morning for a quick trip home to Herrlingen for his wife's birthday on June 6th, followed by a meeting he requested with Hitler at the Berghof in Obersalzberg. The Desert Fox was currently reading the latest weather report from Luftwaffe  _Oberst_ Walter Stobe, the 3rd Air Fleet's Chief Meteorologist; the front moving across the English Channel and Northwestern Europe would surely make an amphibious invasion impossible. The Allies would probably miss their opportunity in June with the moon and tides, and that would give him another priceless month to strengthen his coastal defenses. He was interrupted when his aide,  _Hauptmann_ (Captain) Hermann Aldinger, informed Rommel that his son Manfred in Herrlingen, who was home on leave from his Reich Labour Service (RAD) FlaK battery, had just phoned him. It was highly unusual for the Desert Fox for his own son to call him; he was worried. But Manfred explained that his mother had received a cold (thankfully not serious), but she wanted him to come home  _after_ his visit with the Fuhrer when she was feeling much better. After he hung up, Rommel called Speidel and informed him of his change of plans. He had an extra day now before he had to leave for the Berghof, time enough to get in another day with the troops. The Desert Fox would also like to see how the 12th SS Panzer Division was settling in and would spend the night Marcks' 84th Army Korps HQ at the Chateau de Chiffrevast, and leave the next morning on June 6th.

Elsewhere, the forty-five Tiger I Heavy Tanks of the 101st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion began detraining at Le Mans under the cover of night.  _Generalleutnant_ Bayerlein and his staff were at the train station to welcome the 'temporary addition' to the Panzer Lehr Division's already great strength. Rommel had secured the attachment of the 1st SS Panzer Korps' heavy panzer battalion for 'temporary training' with Panzer Lehr. He had wanted as much firepower as close to the front as he could get it, no matter the excuse. The officers of Panzer Lehr were there to see the Black Baron himself,  _SS-Obersturmfuhrer_ (First-Lieutenant) Michael Wittmann. It wasn't every day that a celebrity, who was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, showed up. Especially one that had destroyed 117 Soviet tanks and anti-tank guns on the Eastern Front.

**(Monday, June 5th)**

The men of the U.S 29th Infantry Division's 116th Infantry Regiment had been aboard their transports since the night of June 3rd. Now, the storm was tossing them from one crashing wave to another off Weymouth. The entire regiment was in so much misery and felled by sea sickness that not even the great Confederate Lieutenant-General Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson himself couldn't roused them.

By 0330 that morning, said storm had reached near-hurricane sized proportions. Eisenhower watched the rain come down in almost horizontal-like sheets, shaking his head at the disaster that could've struck the convoys had he decided to stick with the original invasion date. Stagg and his meteorological staff were called upon again. They described the storm that was currently pounding upon the shores of Northern France at that moment, but then announced that the next thirty-six hours of good weather would begin the next morning before said weather would deteriorate again. Eisenhower wasn't about to lose this opening. He looked at all of the officers present in the room with him and said:

'This is the decision which I must take alone. After all, that's what I am here for. We sail tomorrow'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The K418(f) was the German designation for the French Canon de 155mm Grande Puissance Filloux (GPF) modele 1917 L/38.2 Heavy Field Gun.
> 
> *German battle groups are always named after the senior-ranking officer present. Kampfgruppe Heyna, for example, is named after Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant-Colonel) Ernst Heyna, commanding officer of the 352nd Infantry Division's 914th Grenadier Regiment.
> 
> *In the new Type 1944 Infantry Division organization, the Panzerjager Battalion lost its 4th Company. The 352nd Panzerjager Battalion had fourteen Marder IIIM Tank Destroyers in its 1st Company, ten StuG IIIG Assault Guns in its 2nd Company, and nine SdKfz 7/2 Anti-Aircraft Half-Tracks in its 3rd Company.
> 
> *Named after Oberstleutnant Karl Meyer, commander of the 915th Grenadier Regiment.
> 
> *In late 1943, the Wehrmacht replaced the Reconnaissance Battalion in the Infantry Divisions with a Fusilier Battalion. The Fusilier Battalion was in paper-designed to serve as a semi-mobile divisional reserve mounted on bicycles and trucks. The Fusilier Battalion were organized similarly to the Infantry Battalions in the Grenadier Regiments of that time.
> 
> *The SS Panzergrenadier Regiments had three battalions instead of two in the Panzergrenadier Regiments in the Heer Panzer Divisions. I know that one battalion in one of the Panzergrenadier Regiments (expect for the Panzer Lehr Division) were mounted in half-tracks. But for the sake of my story, I'm having all of the battalions in the Panzergrenadier Regiments in all of the divisions (except for the 17th SS) be mounted in half-tracks.
> 
> *Considered to be the best and most prolific model of the famed Panther tank. It was the sum of battlefield experience and careful fixing of previous issues found on the Panther D and A models. The decision came in May 1943, during a reunion with officers at the MAN factory. There was a whole set of modifications for the hull, while retaining the Panther A turret. The main concern was to increase armour protections. As an example, the hull front glacis was raised to 80mm by removing the driver's visor in the glacis plate and redesigning both the driver's and radio operator's hatches on the hull.
> 
> *When the 352nd Infantry Division took over the Omaha Beach sector in March, the 1st and 3rd Battalions from the 716th Static Division's 726th Grenadier Regiment were subordinated to the headquarters of the 352nd's 916th Grenadier Regiment. Also attached to Kraiss' division from the 716th Static Division were: 439th Ost Battalion (designated as the 726th Grenadier Regiment's 4th Battalion), 3rd Battalion/1716th Artillery Regiment (equipped with eight 100mm leFH 14/19(t) Light Field Howitzers* and four 155mm sFH 414(f) Heavy Field Howitzers*), and 2nd Company/716th Pioneer Battalion.
> 
> *The leFH 14/19(t) was the German designation for the Czech-made 100mm Skoda houfnice vz 14/19 L/24 Light Field Howitzer.
> 
> *The sFH 414(f) was the German designation for the French Canon de 155mm C modele 1917 Schneider L/15.3 Heavy Field Howitzer.


	9. The Airborne Assaults: The British Airborne Drops, 0015-0045

If this British 6th Airborne Division was the spearhead of the British 2nd Army in this battle, the razor-sharp point was Dog Company of the 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Battalion of the 6th Airborne Division's 6th Airlanding Brigade, commanded by Major John Howard. His mission was to seize both the bascule bridge (codenamed: 'Pegasus') over the Caen Canal and the swing bridge (codenamed: 'Horsa') over the Orne River. Held by the British, they would allow the lodgement to be expanded northward; conversely, they barreled the way to any German counterattack into the flank of the 2nd Army.

Defending the two bridges was a half-platoon of eighteen men from the 3rd Company/736th Grenadier Regiment of the 716th Static Division. Reinforced with two MG42s and a Vf600 Gun Pit* at Pegasus Bridge.

Major Howard's AS.51 Horsa I Glider and the other five behind him landed as close within sixty yards of Pegasus Bridge at 0015, their wings snapped snapped off by Rommel's Asparagus (which were 13-to-16-foot logs that were placed in fields and strung with wires to cause damage to gliders and to kill or injure glider infantrymen).  _Obersoldat_ (Senior Private/Private First Class) Helmut Roemer and an unnamed  _Obergefreiter_ (Corporal) were on sentry duty at Pegasus Bridge when they heard a rifle shot. Turning to the sound, they saw First-Lieutenant Den Brotheridge and the men of Dog Company's 1st Platoon rushing towards them out of the night. Roemer turned and shouted: 'Paratroopers!' as he ran. But the  _Obergefreiter_ managed to pull out his 26.65mm LP-42 Flare Pistol and fired a red flare into the air to raise the alarm. Brotheridge reacted immediately by cutting the man down with a burst from his Sten Mark V SMG; Private First Class Bill Gray soon joined in with a volley from his Bren Mark III LMG. The firing alerted the MG42 crew on the other side of the bridge. Brotheridge continued running towards them as he tossed a No. 36M Mark I Hand Grenade, but he was killed instantly when a bullet went through his neck. Following behind Brotheridge, the men of his platoon concentrated on the MG42 post. The grenade, thrown by the now dead officer, exploded and killed the gun crew. Soon, 1st Platoon was quickly reinforced by the rest of Dog Company with Major Howard at the front and shouting: 'Up the Oxs and Bucks! Up the Oxs and Bucks!' as they and 1st Platoon swarmed over Pegasus Bridge. The German defense was overwhelmed; the NCOs fought until they were all killed while their men fled. The Oxs and Bucks had soon taken both bridges at the cost of only two dead and five wounded in all just within fifteen minutes. Roemer and two distraught-looking Italian conscrpts were taken prisoner. At Pegasus Bridge, Major Howard ordered the success signal 'Ham and Jam' to be transmitted to signify that he had the intact bridges under his command. It only remained for him and his company to hold them until they were relieved by the 6th Airborne Division's 5th Parachute Brigade (commanded by Brigadier/Brigadier-General Nigel Poett), who were to land thirty minutes later*.

While Howard waited, all three Allied airborne divisions were badly scattred over their drop zones. Inadequately trained C-47A Dakota pilots and copilots swerved widely through the skies to avoid the enthusiastic German FlaK batteries contributing to the navigation problems caused by low-cloud cover. But the glider pilots and copilots, on the other hand, were made of much more sterner stuff and coolly landed most of the time at right where they were supposed to. Only seven of the C-47A Dakotas were lost as opposed to twenty-two of AS.51 Horsa I and GAL.49 Hamilcar I Gliders which didn't reach their landing zones. Seventy-one of the 196 members of the Glider Pilot Regiment were killed or wounded during the landings. The British suffered the least from the dispersion as the division dropped 4,800 paratroopers of its 3rd and 5th Parachute Brigades east of the Orne River. Only three thousand of them would be able to assemble their battalions to fight as planned. They had the more easier and safer routes of the approach flights, straight from Littlehampton without crossing any heavily-defended areas.

Nevertheless, the 6th Airborne Division could only muster barley 60% of its strength upon landing. Major-General Richard Gale, the division commander, had three missions:

  1. Secure the bridges that Major Howard and his company had just taken; the Orne River and Caen Canal bridges controlled the most important road that would carry a German counterattack from Caen to Sword Beach, as well as establishing communications between said beach and the 6th Airborne.
  2. Destroy the gun battery at Merville.
  3. Destroy the four bridges over the Dives River east of the Orne to halt reinforcements from the German 15th Army's 81st Army Korps (commanded by  _General der Panzertruppen_ Adolf-Friedrich Kuntzen) from counterattacking the beachhead.



The 5th Parachute Brigade's 7th Parachute Battalion (commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Pine-Coffin) rushed to rescue the Oxs and Bucks and were hurried along by the sound of a terrific explosion. Pine-Coffin rallied his men by using his M1855 Duty Bugle to sound the regimental calls at intervals. Howard's men had just repulsed a German patrol (made up of 3rd Company/736th Grenadier Regiment and the six 149.1mm PzH Lorraine(f) Self-Propelled Guns* of the 11th Battery of the 716th Static Division's 1716th Artillery Regiment) by destroying the lead 149.1mm PzH Lorraine(f), whose exploding ammunition had so worried Pine-Coffin's unit. Upon arrival, the 7th Parachute Battalion pitched into the German patrol as it retreated into Benouville and cleared them out.  _Generalleutnant_ Wilhelm Richter, commander of the 716th Static Division, reacted decisively by counterattacking again with infantry and SPGs, but the mettle of his second-rate troops weren't up to the withering fire of the paratroopers. The first attack broke up when the British cut down the infantry supporting the SPGs, but Richter was nothing if not persistent. The counterattacks continued and almost wiped out Able Company which clung to the town after nearly loosing all of its officers.

The Third Parachute Brigade (commanded by Brigadier Stanley Hill)'s assault on the Merville Battery was to pass into legend. The Germans had built four huge gun casemates for 150mm guns that would be able to rake all of Sword Beach. Tasked with taking the battery was Lieutenant-Colonel Terence Otway's 9th Parachute Battalion. The battalion had to eliminate the guns before 0500 or HMS  _Arethusa_ (an  _Arethusa_ -Class Light Cruiser) would attempt to destroy the position with its six 6"/50 BL Mark 23 Naval Guns. The battery's weapons were enclosed in an area 700 x 500 yards, surrounded by a double-belt of barbed wire that was 15-feet thick and 5-feet high that acted as the exterior border for a 100-yard-deep minefield. The guns themselves were housed in H669 Gun Casemates with steel doors, two of which were covered with 12-feet of earth. An anti-tank ditch barred approach from the seaward side and a 20mm FlaK 38 L/65 Autocannon and several MG34/MG42s in fifteen weapon pits protected all approaches*. In addition to the 750 men of the battalion that were engaged in the operation, Otway was equipped with ML 3-inch (81.2mm) Mark II Mortars, a 6-Pounder Mark III L/43 Anti-Tank Gun, jeeps with trailers full of demolition charges and Lifebuoy Mark II Flamethrowers, all of which were to be carried to the landing zone in five AS.51 Horsa I Gliders. It was also planned that at the time of the assault, three more AS.51 Horsa I Gliders would land a further fifty men directly onto the roofs of the guns within the battery itself.

But that night, nothing went right. The battalion was so badly scattered in the drop that Otway and barely 160 of his men, minus all the sappers and only twenty M1A1 Bangalore Torpedos and one Bren Mark III LMG, could be assembled. The Lieutenant-Colonel courageously decided to press on and continue the mission, whatever the situation. Luckily, an RAF bombing raid on the battery earlier had detonated many of the mines and chewed up the barbed wire. Otway sent four ad-hoc assault teams through the holes, losing men to still-live mines and increasingly accurate fire from the MG34s and MG42s (the 20mm FlaK 38 L/65 Autocannon was unmanned at the time). But they made it through to close in on the defenders of each castemates in savage close-quarters fighting that caused the defense to collapse. The British had lost half of their men dead or wounded, but the Merville Battery was theirs. To their chagrin, they discovered that the fearsome '150mm' guns were 100mm leFH 14/19(t) Light Field Howitzers that were setup for coastal defense against an attack east of the mouth of the Orne River, and thus didn't posed a serious threat to Sword Beach.

The rest of the 3rd Parachute Brigade's mission was easily accomplished by the brigade's 8th Parachute Battalion (commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Alastair Pearson) and the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion (commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel G.F.P. Bradbrooke) destroyed the bridges over the Dives River. At the bridge at Troarn, the British ran into the 5th Company/2nd Battalion of the 21st Panzer Division's 125th Panzergrenadier Regiment (commanded by  _Major_ (Major) Hans von Luck). The company had just reequipped themselves with live rounds after just completing a night exercise armed with only blank ammunition. Von Luck quickly concluded that such a large airborne operation could only be the van of the invasion. The 2nd Battalion came to the rescue of its 5th Company with a quick counterattack and captured some prisoners, but were too late to save the bridge. Von Luck put both his regiment's first battalion and the division's 200th Assault Gun Battalion (equipped with fifteen 75mm PzH 39H(f) Tank Destroyers*, thirty 105mm PzH 39H(f) Self-Propelled Guns*, and six U304(f) FlaK Half-Tracks*) were put on alert only a little to the south of its sister battalion. Ever element of the  _Major_ 's training and combat experience in both North Africa and the Eastern Front screamed at him to attack while the enemy is disorganized and dispersed, but von Luck had already exceeded his strict standing orders to take no offensive action without the permission that would proceed from Army Group B. He would go no further. As he paced his 125th Panzergrenadier Regiment's HQ that night, the permission never came.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The most common gun emplacement along the Normandy coast was the Vf600 open gun platforms for the pedestal-mounted 50mm KwK 38/1 L/42 Cannon with a gunshield for crew protection. In its basic Vf600V form, it was an octagonal gun pit was about 4.15m wide generally with recess for ammo storage in the four front and side walls. The basic Vf600 version of the series had two access ways at the rear of the platform, while the modified Vf600E had a single access way. This basic configuration was modified on numerous occasions to adapt the platform to local conditions, sometimes called the Vf600SK (SK=Special Design). One of the modifications notable on the D-Day beaches was the parapet style, which was designed to provide enfilade fire along the beach by exploiting the existing high seawalls, mostly on Juno Beach.
> 
> *Ten to twenty minutes earlier, the Pathfinders of the British 22nd Independent Parachute Company were the first to land in Normandy. Their job was to mark the glider landing sites and drop zones with 6-volt battery-powered Holophane lamps east of the Orne River to guide in the main force of the 6th Airborne Division. The Pathfinders in the American 101st Airborne Division fell to earth shortly thereafter and lit the way with their 'Eureka' homing beacons, but their counterparts in the 82nd Airborne Division had fallen among the Germans and dared not.
> 
> *Major Alfred Becker. An engineer and WW1 reserve officer, he was called back into service with the artillery to serve in the 1940 campaigns into France and Holland. His unit (the 277th Infantry Division) was staying in France as part of the occupation force, while he was collecting British equipment abandoned at Dunkirk and converted them into self-propelled guns with the addition of howitzers or anti-tank guns. After a short tour on the Eastern Front, Becker setup a workshop in France in 1942 and started converting captured French vehicles into SPGs. The German Heer owes his craftmanship to many vehicles: Hummel, Wespe, Marder I, Lorraine-based carriers, etc...
> 
> In 1943-44, Becker refurbished the 21st Panzer Division with hundreds of his vehicles: but in the panzer recon battalion, all of the armored personal carriers were modified French Unic P107 Half-Tracks, as well as the specialized versions. The SPGs were all based on Lorraine & Hotchkiss chassis, and artillery observation vehicles on the Panzer 38H 735(f). Unique vehicles built from the Somua MCG5 Half-Track were also added to the division's armory: MLRS, multiple mortars, and even a self-propelled PaK 40 L/46 that was months before the first SdKfz 251/22D.
> 
> Dubbed 'Rommel's Circus' because of its motley assortment of vehicles, the 21st Panzer Division was at the same time under-equipped and yet more mechanized than most of its sister panzer divisions, thanks to Becker's SPGs and half-tracks which it had in the greatest numbers. Major Becker took command of the division's 200th Assault Gun Battalion himself, and into action in Normandy.
> 
> The 149.1mm PzH Lorraine(f) aka 149.1mm Geschutzwagen Lorraine Schlepper(f) was built around the base of the Lorraine 37L Tracked Carrier and mounted the 149.1mm sFH 13/1 L/14 Heavy Field Howitzer. Six of these vehicles were each in the 9th (Infantry Gun) Company of the 21st Panzer Division's two panzergrenadier regiments. And the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 21st Panzer's 155th Panzer Artillery Regiment had each one battery that was equipped with six 149.1mm PzH Lorraine(f)s with the other two batteries were each equipped with 105mm PzH Lorraine(f)s.
> 
> *The garrison was made up 80 men from 1st Battery/1716th Artillery Regiment.
> 
> *The 75mm PzH 39H(f) Tank Destroyer aka 75mm Geschutzwagen 39H(f) was built around the base of the Hotchkiss H39D Light Calvary Tank and mounted the 75mm PaK 40/1 L/46 Anti-Tank Gun.
> 
> *The 105mm PzH 39H(f) SPG aka 105mm Geschutzwagen 39H(f) was also built around the base of the Hotchkiss H39D Light Calvary Tank, but mounted the 105mm leFH 18/40/1 L/31 Light Field Howitzer. This vehicle was used in both the anti-tank and artillery support mode.
> 
> *Due to the shortage of available SdKfz 251D Half-Tracks, Becker created the U304(f). The U304(f) was a Unic P107 Half-Track converted into an armored personnel carrier for German use. The conversion was compatible with a number of weapon systems and could be used for a variety of purposes. The U304(f) FlaK variant mounted a 20mm FlaK 38 L/56 Autocannon. In the 21st Panzer's two panzergrenadier regiments, a panzergrenadier company would have three U304(f) FlaK in the FlaK Squad, along with three more serving as the platoon commander's vehicle.


	10. The Airborne Assaults: The American Airborne Drops, 0130

The indirect approach flight of the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions that were carrying the first wave begged for trouble. It was an indirect route wending first southwest from the English coast from Portland Bill and then turning eastward, crossing the Cotentin Peninsula to reach the dropping zones from the west. They ran into low clouds and intense anti-aircraft fire that panicked many of the combat-inexperienced pilots. One C-47A Skytrain blossomed into an orange fireball when it was hit. The others around it bolted in all directions and spilling their sixteen-man sticks of paratroopers. The loss of barley twenty transports in that great swarm was proof that the danger was much more apparent than real, but that was little to no comfort to the American paratroopers who were falling out of careening Skytrains and dropping too soon or too late into tracer-filled Normandy night. For the 82nd 'All-American' Airborne Division, commanded by Major-General Matthew Ridgway, they weren't even the Pathfinders' lights. The two divisions were to interpose themselves between Utah Beach and the German reserves inland. They were Utah's human shield, to blunt German counterattacks while the U.S 4th Infantry Division struggled ashore and secured its lodgement. The 82nd Airborne was to seize the communications hub of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, which sat on the  _only_ high-speed road linking Cherbourg and the rest of the defense complex to the east, and through which ran the Atlantic Wall's major landline cable. They were also to seize the causeways and bridges over the Merderet River at Chef-du-Pont and La Fiere to close them from counterattack from the 91st Airlanding Division (commanded by  _Generalleutnant_ Wilhelm Falley). The 101st 'Screaming Eagles' Division, commanded by Major-General Maxwell 'Max' Taylor, was to drop behind the 82nd and were given the job to secure the four causeway exits behind Utah Beach, destroy the coastal artillery battery at Saint-Martin-de-Varreville*, and to block any German counterattacks from the south by taking Carentan three miles to the west of the Vire River.

Both divisions were badly scattered, with the 82nd Airborne by far the worse. The division's 507th and 508th Parachute Infantry Regiments (or PIR for short) were to originally land west of the Merderet River actually fell astride it and landed into the marshes that filled the shallow river valley that was flooded by the Germans to discourage airborne landings. Around 200 paratroopers drowned. A neutral observer might have decided that neither was operational after landing that so few men were able to rally to their regiments or battalions. By dawn, only 1,100 out of 6,000 paratroopers of Taylor's first wave were able to reach their rendezvous point. The neutral observer, however, would have failed to account for both the pugnacity and aggressiveness of the American paratroopers. The 82nd and the 101st were elite units in every sense. They had been recruited from volunteers, which were the type of men that seek out risks and danger like iron filings rushing to a magnet. Wherever they landed, they coalesced into ad-hoc combat groups that were built around battalion and company commanders or even NCOs and moved out to execute their missions. The very dispersion and disorganization was a left-handed boon for the paratroopers, but the Germans had no idea of what was going on as paratrooper landings were reported everywhere in unknown strength.

Each division had at least one regiment that landed fairly intact. The 82nd Airborne's 505th PIR (commanded by Colonel William Ekman) was able to assemble itself near the vicinity of Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Unfortunately, a stick from 2nd Battalion/505th PIR had fallen into the town in a tragic setting that not even Hollywood could have devised. A stray incendiary bomb from an earlier air raid had set fire to a house east of the town square. A French bucket brigade, guarded by Germans, was trying to douse the flames when the sixteen paratroopers began to descend. Two of them loaded with 60mm mortar rounds fell into the burning building itself and died instantly when their ammo exploded. Others were shot as they fell into wild vertical firefights, the Germans were firing up while the Americans desperately tried to free their weapons to fire hopelessly down. One paratrooper, Private First Class John Steele, got his parachute caught in one of the pinnacles of the church tower, leaving him hanging on the side of the church although the night. The few survivors broke free of the town and escaped into the night. The German garrison went to bed, influenced more by routine than danger. Unknown to them, Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Krause's 3rd Battalion/505th PIR had landed within a mile of the town, just where he had intended. Assembling 180 of his men and dragooning a drunken Frenchman as a guide, he marched on the town. Krause then gave explicit instructions to limit their actions only to knives, bayonets and grenades to make it easier to extinguish German defenders. At dawn, after cutting the German major landline cable, his men rousted thirty Germans out of their bunks, killed eleven, and drove out more from the town. Krause and his men were soon reinforced by the rest of the 505th PIR, along with all of the twelve 75mm M1A1 L/18.4 Pack Howitzers, four 6-Pounder Mark IV (Mark III Carriage) L/43 Anti-Tank Guns* and the eight M2HB HMGs of the 101st Airborne Division's 377th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion (who landed surprisingly 100% intact in one of the 82nd's drop-zones by accident). Ridgway's division was lodged like a bone in the throat of the German communications on the Cotentin Peninsula.

Meanwhile, elements of both the 507th and 508th PIRs had captured the bridges and causeways over the Merderet River at Chef-du-Pont and La Fiere, but were dislodged by counterattacks from the 91st Airlanding Division's 1057th Grenadier Regiment (commanded by  _Oberst_ Sylvester von Saldern). Isolated elements from the two American regiments had managed to form strongpoints on the German side of the river that were able to disrupt the 91st Airlanding Division's exploitation of their control of the bridges and causeways. By dawn, Ridgway (having assembled 40% of his division) and his divisional staff arrived in Sainte-Mere-Eglise and were currently keeping the enemy at bay.

To the south, the 101st Airborne Division had landed in areas devoid of German reserves. The division's 506th PIR (commanded by Colonel Robert Sink) had landed more or less intact, and two battalions quickly attacked the two southernmost exits off of Utah Beach. The 501st and 502nd PIRs each had a battalion that had dropped well, but found the others badly scattered. In the southeast corner of the division's drop-zones, the 101st fell into prepared German defenses that the grenadiers of the 91st Airlanding Division had rightly suspected were ideal landing zones. The 1st Battalion/501st PIR's mission was to take the lock at La Barquette, which was north of Carentan on the Douve River. Control of the lock was essential in order to reduce the flooding that would prove an obstacle to the eventual movement out of the beachhead. The mission of the 3rd Battalion/506th PIR was to take the two bridges at Le Port on the Douve River, located north of Carentan. Unfortunately, the 91st Airlanding Division's 1058th Grenadier Regiment (commanded by  _Oberst_ Kurt Beigang) had illuminated the drop zone by soaking a wooden building with fuel before setting it on fire. Both the battalion commander and his XO were among those killed in those first moments. Captain Charles Shettle, the battalion's Operations Officer, landed away from the main drop-zone and set off to the two bridges at Le Port with about fifteen men. This small group gradually increased in size as it attracted more scattered paratroopers as they reached the two bridges at 0430 and overran the western end of both. Heavy MG fire stopped every attempt to cross. The remnants of the 1st Battalion/501st PIR were just as dogged, though less successful. They reached their objective, which was the lock, but were thrown back from its edge by the defenders of the 1058th Grenadier Regiment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The German unit in the town was the 1st Battery/1261st Army Coastal Artillery Regiment with four 122mm K390/2(r) Field Guns* in H669 Gun Casements at WN108. The 2nd Battalion/502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division quickly attack the position and destroyed the guns during the early hours of June 6th.
> 
> *The K390/2(r) was the German designation for the Soviet 122mm M1931/37 (A-19) L/46.3 Field Gun.
> 
> *The Paratroopers used the British-made 6-Pounder Mark IV L/43 Anti-Tank Gun but had them mounted on the British-made lightweight Mark III Carriage for deployment via gliders during the invasion of Normandy, due to rejecting the U.S Army's 57mm M1 L/50 Anti-Tank Gun because of its weight.


	11. The Airborne Assaults: The Germans React

At 0111 in the morning,  _General der Artillerie_ Marcks was still up, working late on the last-minute touches for tomorrow's war-games at Rennes. It was his 53rd birthday and his staff had slipped a birthday party into their workaholic commander's schedule. Marcks was just about to cut the cake when he received an urgent phone call from  _Generalleutnant_ Richter from the 716th Static Division, who reported large paratrooper and glider landings east of the Orne River and around Benouville. Marcks then personally awakened Rommel and briefed him on the situation. In the next forty-five minutes, more reports came in of massive airborne landings all over Normandy. Mixed in with the panic reports of real paratrooper landings were many that mistook the Allies' paradummies* that were dropped throughout Normandy for the real thing. Rommel and Marcks saw the entire front rippled with reports of paratrooper sightings. Said sightings seemed to mass east of the Orne River north of Caen, in a broad circle around Bayeux and wildly from Sainte-Mere-Eglise to Carentan. The Desert Fox concluded that they were in the midst of the great diversion of the main invasion that he had anticipated would fall in Normandy.

He then made his decision. Despite the failing communication system (due to the lines being cut by the French Resistance), Rommel was able to phone Speidel at La Roche-Guyon by 0200 with an appraisal of the situation and ordered his Chief-of-Staff to put the entire army group on full alert. Speidel was also to inform von Rundstedt at OB West. Marcks would move to Caen to sort out the situation there and was to employ the 21st Panzer Division to strike at any landings. Rommel would move to the north to do the same with the 12th SS Panzer Division. Before leaving, he tried unsuccessfully to contact the commander of the 6th Fallschirmjager Regiment, Luftwaffe  _Major_ Friedrich August aka the Baron von der Heydte, at his HQ at La Hotellerie to immediately assemble his regiment at Carentan. By 0230, he was on the road to Isigny-sur-Mer and the new HQ for the 12th SS Panzer Division. Rommel met with the Hitlerjugend's commander,  _SS-Brigadefuhrer_ (Brigadier-General) Franz Witt, who already had his division on full alert and ready to burst out onto the roads to hunt down the Allied paratroopers. He also split his available units into two kampfgruppes to take part in the planned counter-landing exercise with the 352nd Infantry Division:

  * **SS-Kampfgruppe Witt**
  * HQ/12th SS Panzer Division
  * 2nd Battalion/12th SS Panzer Regiment (ninety-eight Panzer IVH* Medium Tanks)
  * 3rd Battalion/26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment
  * 1st Battalion/1st SS Panzer Artillery Regiment (twelve 105mm Wespe* SPGs and six 149mm Hummel* SPGs)
  * 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion
  * 12th SS Panzer Signals Battalion



 

  * **SS-Kampfgruppe Wunsche**
  * HQ/12th SS Panzer Regiment
  * 1st Battalion/12th SS Panzer Regiment (fifty Panther G Medium Tanks)
  * 26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment (minus 1st Battalion)
  * 12th SS Panzer Maintenance Battalion



Rommel then outlined his plane to Witt: concentrate quickly at Carentan with the 6th Fallschirmjager Regiment attached to Hitlerjugend, and then strike north along the two parallel roads running north and south behind the coast, Highway N13 between Carentan and Montebourg and the road that ran parallel to the coast just behind the inundated areas just behind the beaches. As Witt gave the order, his division sprang to life. The 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion erupted on the road, heading for the bridges over the Vire River to the west. The Desert Fox then turned to Witt and informed him that he'll be behind the battalion and rendezvous with him at Carentan. And with that, he jumped into his Skoda Superb 3000 Type 952/Kfz.21 Command Car. A smile half touched Rommel's mouth as he looked at his aide and said: 'Well, Lang, its just like old times. Let's go'.

And his car joined the cavalcade of BW43 Motorcycles with BMW 286/1 Sidecars, Type 82 Kubelwagens, Type 166 Schwimmwagens, SdKfz 222 Light Armored Scout Cars, SdKfz 231/233 Heavy Armored Scout Cars and SdKfz 250 Half-Track variants that made up the 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion. Witt paused barely for a second to wonder if a  _Generalfeldmarschall_ should be at the head of a recon mission. That wasn't even Witt's job, but he had more to worry about then. He wanted to be close behind Rommel with his kampfgruppe. Wherever the Desert Fox went, there was sure to be excitement.

As Rommel sped off to Isigny-su-Mer, OB West's HQ was already being inundated with a surge of spot reports from the units along the coast of massive airborne landings. Speidel reported Rommel's initial appraisal of the situation directly to von Rundstedt at 0230 and added his own endorsement. The old Prussian could barley contain his distress when he heard that Rommel had disappeared into the night on a tactical reconnaissance mission. He then ordered Speidel to find him and get Rommel back to the safety of his own headquarters. A few minutes later, Speidel was brought to the phone by a call from  _Generalleutnant_ Max-Josef Pemsel, Chief-of-Staff for the 7th Army, whose HQ was at the Chateau du Mans at Le Mans. He emphatically disagreed with Speidel. This  _was_ indeed the invasion. The Chief-of-Staff of Army Group B stood his ground. Strong character if not sound judgement was the hallmark of the German General Staff officer. Pemsel was still not convinced and ordered Speidel's words to be placed verbatim in the 7th Army's log: 'The affair is still locally confined, and the Chief-of-Staff for Army Group B believes that for the time being that this isn't to be considered as a large operation'.

Von Rundstedt's judgement was better. At 0415, he stated that the airborne landings were 'definitely the opening phase of a amphibious landing to be expected at dawn'. He still considered this to be a diversion but one that would be followed up with an amphibious landing operation. While said landing would be secondary to the major landing to occur later, but it was still dangerous. If successful, the Allies wouldn't fail to exploit it whenever or not another landing was in the offing. It had to be crushed as soon as possible. He had to act quickly to get the mobile reserves on the road before dawn so that the morning mists would be able to act as a protective coat of invisibility as they closed in on the landing beaches. At 0430, he ordered the nearest OB West reserves, the 2nd and 116th Panzer Divisions, to move immediately to Normandy. The 1st SS Panzer Division in Belgium and the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division just south of the Loire River were also alerted and ordered to begin their movement to Normandy. It had been understood that despite the designation of these two divisions as OKW reserve, he as head of OB West would have the authority to commit them as the situation dictated. In Rommel's absence, von Rundstedt also ordered Army Group B's remaining reserve, the Panzer Lehr Division, to move to Normandy as well. Then his judgement deserted him. He sent a message to OKW advising of his actions as a proforma last thought and requesting approval for his actions.

At about 0445, the 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion sped into Carentan. Rommel found the local commander and learned of the attacks on the lock at La Barquette and the two bridges at Le Port. The bicycle-mounted 16th (Reconnaissance) Company of the 6th Fallschirmjager Regiment had already straggled into town. He knew that the Americans were attempting to seal the edge of their drop-zone and he must break them as quickly as possible before the seal is harden. He assembled  _SS-Sturmbannfuhrer_ Gerhard Bremer, commander of the 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion, and Luftwaffe  _Oberfeldwebel_ (First Sergeant) Alexander Uhlig, commander of the 16th (Reconnaissance) Company/6th Fallschirmjager Regiment and gave them orders for an immediate counterattack. They would cross the Douve River to the east of the La Barquette lock and onto the road to Saint-Come-du-Mont before turning east and attack the Americans in turn at the lock and then at the two bridges at Le Port. Witt was to follow through and strike with part of his kampfgruppe towards Sainte-Mere-Eglise and the second half to follow the recon battalion and Fallschirmjagers. The attack moved out immediately with Rommel close to the head of the column. The combined column with the Fallschirmjagers riding ontop of the recon vehicles crossed the Douve River unopposed and swung east. By 0515, they had crashed into the Americans around the La Barquette lock. Surprise was everything. There was a sharp firefight as the vehicles of the 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion attacked them from the rear, and then the American positions caved in when the Fallschirmjagers closed in on them with their MP40 SMGs, Gewehr 43 Semi-Automatic Rifles, FG42 Automatic Rifles and M43 Stick Grenades. Rommel was surprised at how few American paratroopers there had been, thirty dead and thirty-five captured with the rest scattered. One of Bremer's subordinates (who happen to take off shoulder sleeve insignias off of dead bodies of each unit he encountered as a hobby) walked up to Rommel's command car and brandished the shoulder sleeve insignia of the U.S 101st Airborne 'Screaming Eagles' Division. Rommel examined it briefly. He didn't stop to worry about the enemy that had fled but ordered the column to press on towards the bridges at Le Port.

The Desert Fox wouldn't be with them. The key to the area was Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Rommel ordered his staff car to be turned around and sped back towards Saint-Come-du-Mont with a small escort to join Witt. They were just halfway there when a sheet of MG fire erupted out of the hedgerows along the road. The two BMW 43 Motorcycles with BMW 286/1 Sidecars that were part of his escort spun across the road as bullets ripped through the command car, killing the driver and plunging said car into a ditch. The following SdKfz 222 Light Armored Scout Car burst apart from a 66mm HEAT (High-Explosive-Anti-Tank) round from a M1 Bazooka. Rommel pulled his wounded aide out of the wrecked command car and into the bushes and the shadows of pre-dawn. A platoon of American paratroopers jumped out of the hedgerows to search the wrecked vehicles and the dead. A First-Lieutenant pulled out his M1938 Map Case while his Staff Sergeant gave a shout of triumph as he waved Rommel's silver-headed marshal's interim baton overhead. Pulling the badly-wounded  _Hauptmann_  Helmuth Lang with him, Rommel crawled through a hole in the hedgerow and worked away from the Americans and the road.

The Desert Fox's instructions to Witt had never reached him. Witt came barring through Carentan with the rest of his kampfgruppe and crossed the Douve River, where he found a Feldgendarmerie (Military Police) detail that told him that the  _Generalfeldmarschall_ had gone east. Apprised of of the enemy at the La Barquette lock and the two bridges at Le Port, Witt sent half of his kampfgruppe, lead by the commander of the 1st Battalion/12th SS Panzer Regiment,  _SS-Sturmbannfuhrer_ Karl-Heinz Prinz, to follow Rommel and attack north up Highway N13 towards Sainte-Mere-Eglise. It was now about 0515, with dawn less than an hour away. His advance were still travelling in the dark, which was the cloak of surprise. They were ambushed as they passed through the village of Saint-Come-du-Mont. M1 Bazookas and No. 82 Gammon Grenades had damaged a Panzer IVH and knocked out two SdKfz 251D Half-Tracks before his infantry support were able to clear out the small band of American paratroopers. The teenage SS-Panzergrenadiers leaped into their first fight with an elan that Witt hadn't seen in a long time. He was proud of them, but the Americans had also fought well before the survivors had slipped into the fading night. He was surprised to learn that he had prisoners from not one but  _two_ American airborne divisions. Had he found the boundary between them? He didn't have to push his men too hard; the LSSAH (Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler) cadres knew their job and their boys were filled with eagerness. SS-Kampfgruppe Witt was on the road again in minutes, but within three miles they were again ambushed at the village of Blosville and again at Les Forges the next mile on. By now the dawn was lighting up the battlefield, no longer needing the assistance from the clutch of burning Panzer IVHs and SdKfz 251D Half-Tracks, and the enemy was holding on and kicking back with a few M1 Bazookas and No. 82 Gammon Grenades. They held a hedgerow line running east and west along the road just south of Les Forges. Witt began flanking the position and realized as the fighting ran down the hedgerow line that he was up against more than platoon bands of dispersed American paratroopers.

Ridgway had pulled together a few hundred men from the 507th and 508th PIRs to defend the approach to Sainte-Mere-Eglise from the south. His grip on the eastern edge of the two crossing points over the Merderet River had been pulled taut. Two miles of Les Forges was the causeway at Chef-du-Pont. There, a few hundred men were preventing the 1057th Grenadier Regiment from crossing, while many were defending a bridge a few miles to the north at La Fiere.

While Witt split his column, his 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion and the attached company of Fallschirmjagers surprised and scattered the Americans holding the ends of the two bridges at Le Port. Said column then moved north to the village of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont to pickup the road that paralleled the coast. They sped through the village and surprising the Americans there as well, shooting up everything in their path until they ran into a roadblock on the far side of the village. The Americans quickly recovered and began fighting back from the stone houses that lined the road. The Germans had quickly found out that the Americans were in the area in strength. Company-sized counterattacks began isolating small elements of the column that was strung up and down the main street. As the last of the night disappeared, both forces were locked in a close-quarters fight among the stone houses and gardens of the village, and into the hedgerows of the neighboring fields. The other half of Witt's column raced to the sound of the guns. With forty Panzer IVHs, four Wespes and a SS-Panzergrenadier battalion, Prinz's men tipped the fighting. The SdKfz 233 Heavy Armored Scout Cars with their 75mm KwK 37 L/24 Cannons, the SdKfz 250/8 Half-Tracks with their 75mm KwK 51 L/24 Cannons, and the Panzer IVH with their 75mm KwK 40 L/48 Cannons began blasting at each American strongpoint at point-blank range. The few American-made M1 Bazookas damaged or destroyed a few Panzer IVHs, scout cars or half-tracks, but couldn't stop the grinding process of SS-Kampfgruppe Witt. Still, the SS-Panzergrenadiers and Fallschirmjagers seemed to have to take each house twice in the whipsaw of attack and counterattack. The Americans rarely surrendered. Bodies with the 'Screaming Eagles' shoulder sleeve insignia littered the rubble-strewn streets. It was the hardest sort of fight: elite against elite with neither side conditioned to come off second best. But numbers and heavy equipment eventually told. Slowly, the Americans were pushed out of the village and back towards the coast and the small villages of Houdienville and Pouppeville that covered the two southernmost exits from Utah Beach. Both villages were up against an inundated area and offered no flanks for SS-Kampfgruppe Witt to slip around.

By 6 AM that morning, the situation north of Vire River was teetering on the edge of catastrophe for the two U.S airborne divisions. The 101st had been pushed out of its southern sector and thrown up against the villages that covered the exits from Utah Beach for the soon-to-land U.S 4th Infantry Division. The Screaming Eagles could retreat no more. Several more battalions from the 101st had opened the Utah Beach exits from the north. To the west, the 82nd was barely holding a line few miles south of Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Neither division could muster more than 1,500 men under their direct control. Thousands more were either dead or roaming in small groups, like the one that ambushed the commander of Army Group B.

As the battle against the U.S 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions roared and sputtered, Rommel was dodging several of those small groups through the fields and hedgerows. He wouldn't leave his badly-wounded aide (who had been with him since North Africa) who begged him to save himself. Walther P38 Pistol in hand, the Desert Fox broke open the door to a French cottage, much to the surprise and terror of its occupants. The farmer (a retired combat medic and WW1 veteran who fought at Verdun) and his wife helped carry Lang to a bed where they did what they could for him*. Then the commander of Army Group B slipped away into the night. The last time the Desert Fox had been so thoroughly alone on a battlefield was when he was a  _Leutnant_ (Second-Lieutenant) on a French field in 1914*. Back then, his absence wouldn't altered the scheme of battle, but as a  _Generalfeldmarschall_ , his absence meant a great deal more.

As Rommel was playing hide-and-seek with the American paratroopers, von Rundstedt's message seemed to be swallowed up in the lethargy of the early morning. The message stirred no concern among Hitler's entourage, certainly not to wake the Fuhrer (who had taken a sleeping pill) and subject themselves to one of his wild demonstrations. At OKW's HQ at Wunsdorf, near Zossen, no one thought it was critical enough to wake  _Generaloberst_ Alfred Jodl, Chief of the OKW's Operations Staff, either. All the while, the panzer divisions were rapidly making their final preparations for getting onto the road to Normandy. By 0600, Jodl was awake and eating a Spartan breakfast when he finally read the message. Both the 1st SS Panzer and the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Divisions were on the road. Chosen by Hitler for his rigid obedience, Jodl reacted furiously to von Rundstedt's defiance of the Fuhrer's instructions. At his direction, the former WW1 artilleryman personally called von Rundstedt and Speidel at 0630 while thousands of Allied landing craft were falling into practised landing formations off the Calvados coast of Normandy. He forbade the movement of not only the OKW reserves, but also the reserves at OB West and Army Group B.

It didn't help that Marcks was delayed at the same time that Rommel was hiding in the hedgerows for his life. As he approached Bayeux in the early morning, the area was alive with German troops hunting/searching for Allied paratroopers. He stopped long enough in Balleroy to brief the commanders of the 352nd Infantry Division and SS-Kampfgruppe Wunsche on the current situation. It was then at about 0700 that he spoke to Speidel, who was frantically searching for Rommel. Marcks relayed his latest information. He also attempted to convince the Chief-of-Staff of Army Group B that this was no diversion. It was way too big. The Allies wouldn't waste so many high-quality units on a diversion; this  _was_ the invasion. There were already reports from the 53rd Luftwaffe Signals Regiment of ship engine noises all up and down the coast. He must have the 21st Panzer Division released to him immediately in order to counterattack the Allied airborne landings east of Caen. Pemsel also agreed with Marcks. Speidel demurred. Then Marcks played his trump card: Rommel had given him permission to use the 21st Panzer Division. Speidel had a better trump card: Jodl had just refused permission for the deployment of any panzer units, and evoking Hitler's authority, even those that had been previously released to Army Group B.  _General der Infanterie_ Gunther Blumentritt, von Rundstedt's Chief-of-Staff at OB West, had personally called OKW and spoken to Jodl. The panzer reserves won't be released without the Fuhrer's express permission, and said Fuhrer was still asleep. Jodl had also forbidden the use of the remaining elements of the 12th SS Panzer Division that hadn't departed from Lisieux. The Desert Fox's release for the panzer reserves was cancelled by higher authority. Speidel did, however, second Rommel's orders for Marcks to take up his post in Caen to deal with the Allied airborne landings east of the Orne River. But with what, wondered Marcks, the old men, Osttruppen and Italian Freiwillige* of the 716th Static Division?

As Speidel and Marcks spoke, a patrol from the 1058th Grenadier Regiment found Rommel's wrecked command car and escort vehicles, but there was no sign of the  _Generalfeldmarschall_. The officer on the spot immediately relayed the news that Rommel was MIA (missing-in-action). Another patrol retrieved Rommel's marshal's interim baton from a dead American Staff Sergeant. So much depended on the Desert Fox and not just the battle. With most of the landline communications severed by the French Resistance, Enigma-encoded traffic had begun humming and now carried the incredible story up the chain of command. Rommel was missing and was almost certainly a POW (Prisoner-of-War).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Paradummies were military deception devices that are used to imitate a drop of paratroopers. This can cause the enemy to shift his forces, fire unnecessarily, or to lure troops into staged ambushes. The devices used by the British were called 'Rupert', while the Americans used the ones they called 'Oscar'.
> 
> *The best variant of the Panzer IV series was featured with several upgrades, including an 80mm single plate glacis, reinforced final drive with higher gear rations, factory-applied Zimmerit anti-magnetic coating, electric traverse for the turret, pre-mounted Schurzen skirts on the sides and turret for extra protection against anti-tank rifles and HEAT rounds, and finally a 75mm KwK 40 L/48 Cannon.
> 
> *The SdKfz 124 Wespe was based on a modified Panzer II chassis and mounted the 105mm leFH 18M/2 L/28 Light Field Howitzer.
> 
> *The SdKfz 165 Hummel was based on the Geschutzwagen III/IV chassis and mounted the 149mm sFH 18M/1 L/30 Heavy Field Howitzer.
> 
> *The farmer was able to save Lang's life and handed the wounded aide over to a nearby German patrol later that morning. Lang was later awarded the Silver Wound Badge.
> 
> *Rommel's first combat experience was on August 22nd, 1914 as a platoon commander near Verdun. While on reconnaissance, the future Generalfeldmarschall spotted more than a dozen French soldiers. In the style that would later make him famous, Rommel attacked with just only three of his men without waiting for the rest of his platoon to catch up.
> 
> *As part of its core force, the 716th Static Division included a number of former Italian Bersaglieri who really did volunteered for service in Heer units, continuing their service to the Axis under the swastika while the Italian NCOS were allowed to keep their Beretta M38 SMG because it fired the exact same cartridge round as the MP40. Indeed, the German static divisions employed a large number of foreign troops ('volunteers', though the Bersaglieri actually did fight willingly under the German banner) as well as conscripts that were deemed unfit for service.


	12. The American Landings, June 6th: 'Bloody' Omaha Beach

At 0600, Captain Bill Scott gazed in awe out of the nose of his B-17G Flying Fortress. His plane was over the English Channel, and everywhere he looked, whether at the rough seas or the skies was an incredible grandeur, and he was part of it. The sea was covered with a vast armada that stretched over the horizon with ships and landing craft of every description. In the air, he was part of an endless bomber stream that also seemed to arch over the horizon. It was almost biblical in the way the Allies had filled the air and the sea. This handsome 24-year-old pilot from Stiff Valley, Kentucky had been on thirteen combat missions over Germany. He had ridden the flak over Frankfurt and Berlin and seen his comrades fall from the sky on too many occasions. His squadron commander's aircraft had disintegrated over Berlin and part of it came crashing through the nose and close to the navigator's compartment. That was too close, as too close or worse as they said it could be today. Flying at 12,000 feet was a terrifying altitude for the bomber crews who have ridden along the 'bomber Autobahn' over Holland and into Germany, those were the orders. The clouds were at 10,000 feet and they bombed by instrument. The bombs spilled out of the bomb bays and fell through the clouds at what they couldn't see. Scott shrugged. The Flying Fortress was clumsy when used in the tactical role.

For the men of the U.S 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions, the bluffs above Omaha Beach continued to grow as their landing craft approached. They had heard the waves of bombers dropping 13,000 tons of bombs directly on the beach defenders in their slit-trenches, gun pits, bunkers and pillboxes. Unknown to the men in the landing craft, this preparatory bombardment had overshot the defenses and fell harmlessly into the open country behind the bluffs, slaughtering only cattle herds. Low-cloud cover had forced the bombers to drop their payload by instrument. In fear that their own bombs would fall among the landing craft, a delay of thirty seconds had been added, a delay which caused them to miss the German defenses entirely. They've also seen the naval warships rip the bluffs apart with their big naval rifles. That was more comforting as men believed their sense of sight over that of hearing. But they would be deceived again. The German defenses had been sighted not to fire directly out to sea, but to bring the beach itself under fire. The strongpoints had been tucked into the bluffs and draws at angles, depending on the terrain, that made them difficult to see and much less to hit from the sea. Still, those bluffs, some were 150 feet high, grew in height faster in the imagination than in reality. But the reality was bad enough. Omaha was the  _most_ formidable beach along the invasion front.

Manning the Widerstandnesten* and trenches along the beach were 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th Companies of 3rd Battalion/726th Grenadier Regiment and 1st Company of 1st Battalion/726th Grenadier Regiment of the 716th Static Division. When the 352nd Infantry Division arrived in late March 1944, the two battalions from the 726th Grenadier Regiment were subordinated to the headquarters of the 352nd Infantry Division, which was also responsible for the eastern sector of Gold Beach. The 914th Grenadier Regiment (commanded by  _Oberstleutnant_ (Lieutenant-Colonel) Ernst Heyna) and the 352nd Panzerjager Battalion were formed into Kampfgruppe Heyna and stationed just outside Cricqueville-en-Bessin were in reserve to mount a counterattack at Isigny or Pointe-du-Hoc. The 915th Grenadier Regiment and the division's 352nd Fusilier Battalion were formed into Kampfgruppe Meyer and was stationed behind Omaha Beach at Bricqueville to serve as the divisional reserve. Covering Omaha Beach were the thirty-six 105mm leFH 18/40 L/31 Light Field Howitzers and the twelve 149mm sFH 18 L/30 Heavy Field Howitzers of the division's 352nd Artillery Regiment* (commanded by  _Oberstleutnant_ Karl-Wilhelm Ocker). The final element of the artillery in this sector was added in March 1944 when the forty 280/320mm Nebelwerfer 41 MRLs (Multiple-Rocket-Launchers) of 3rd Battalion/84th Nebelwerfer Regiment of the 7th Nebelwerfer Brigade (commanded by  _Oberst_ Paul Tzschockell). On the Pointe du Hoc promontory was the 2nd Battery/1260th Army Coastal Artillery Regiment, equipped with six 155mm K418(f) Heavy Field Guns with the range to pound both Omaha and Utah Beaches. At the time of the invasion, the concrete emplacements around the gun casemates and the H636 Forward Artillery Observation Bunker were reinforced by a company from the 726th Grenadier Regiment.

These bluffs formed a greater defence than anything that German artifice could have ever devised, but they did have their flaws. Access from the beach was limited to five gullies, called 'draws' by the U.S Army, and only two of these were readily passable by armored vehicles or motor transport. And it was here the Germans concentrated their defenses. And it was these five places that the U.S 1st Infantry Division planned to sunder the German hold on Omaha Beach. The assault waves were aimed directly at these five draws.

For the assault on Omaha, the Americans had combined elements of two divisions under the control of the Big Red One: the U.S 29th Infantry Division's 116th Infantry Regiment in the first wave and the 115th Infantry Regiment in the second along with the U.S 1st Infantry Division's 16th and 18th Infantry Regiments. Only on June 7th would the 29th resume its independence when its commander came ashore with the rest of the division. Until then, the two regiments from the 29th would be known as the 'Provisional Brigade' (or unofficially as the 'Bastard Brigade' by men who were never comfortable except under their own commander. Said Brigade would be controlled by the 29th's Assistant Division Commander, Brigadier-General Norman 'Dutch' Cota. Cota had been an excellent choice. As former Chief-of-Staff for the U.S 1st Infantry Division, he'd been with that unit since its first landings in North Africa to the desperate foothold on Sicily. Cota was a natural leader and the division hated to give him up.

Within the first wave of the combined division were twenty sub-waves of different elements from the 1st and 29th Divisions that were attached to the two regiments. Four of these attached units had been prepared to play a special role in helping the infantry to break through the formidable defenses on Omaha Beach. Two of them consisted of the 741st and 743rd Tank Battalions (each with sixty-four M4A1 Sherman Medium Tanks) attached to the 16th and 116th Infantry Regiments. Half of the M4A1 Shermans in each battalion were the Duplex-Drive or DD types, meant to swim ashore. The 741st was attached to the 16th and the 743rd was with the 116th. The other half of each battalion would be landed directly on the beaches from their LCT(6)-Class Tank Landing Crafts in wading trunks. The third unit were the specially-trained and heavily-equipped Special Engineer Task Force (made up of the 146th and 299th Combat Engineer Battalions, along with twenty-one Naval Combat Demolition Units (or NCDUs)). The DD (or Donald Duck) tanks would waddle ashore ahead of the infantry to suppress the defences; for example, as on the extreme right where they would take out the German defenders in front of the Vierville-sur-Mer Draw (D-1 or Dog-One), followed by the infantry. Two minutes after, the Army and Navy combat engineers would land to destroy the 3,700 obstacles on the beach that might hinder later waves and to support the infantry's breakthrough of the draws. Behind the tanks on the right was the Provisional Ranger Group, consisting of the elite 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions. The objective was the heavy casemated battery at Pointe du Hoc on the right flank of Omaha Beach. Dog, Easy, and Fox Companies and the HQ Company of the 2nd Rangers would land on the beach beneath the battery and assault straight up the 100-foot cliff. The 5th Rangers and Able, Baker and Charlie Companies of the 2nd Rangers would land near the 116th Infantry Regiment and strike inland to take the battery from the rear.

The planned timetable for the landings was so precise and optimistic that it reminded more than a few of the older men who fought in WW1. For Major-General Leonard Gerow, commander of the U.S 5th Corps, it had an eerie resemblance to the Saint-Mihiel Offensive that he fought in 1918. The assault waves would hit the beach that was neatly divided into eight sectors, exactly at 0631 after the combined naval and air bombardments had ceased. By 0700, the first wave would be ashore and the obstacles cleared by the Army and Naval combat engineers to allow the next waves to come ashore at every thirty minutes over the following two hours. By 0830, all enemy strongpoints would have been overcome when the artillery could begin landing. Within three hours, the tanks and other vehicles of the U.S 1st Infantry Division would be pouring off Omaha Beach and into the interior. By nightfall, 40,000 men and 3,500 vehicles of all types would be unloaded. The Russians had a common sense of military proverbs to belie the confidence of the plan: 'The plan was smooth on paper, but they have forgotten about the ravines'.

The ravines, so invisible to the planners, were all too real for two general officers who would lead the troops in the invasion. Cota had prepared a special study on how to assault a heavily-defended beach. He had been somberly impressed by the near-defeat of the Big Red One during its landing in Sicily and concluded that the greatest chances of success demanded a night landing. The other officer was Major-General Charles 'Pete' Corlett who commanded the U.S 7th Infantry Division in its amphibious assault on Kwajalein Atoll in February 1944. The 'Bayonet' Division had overrun said atoll and wiped out its 9,000 Japanese defenders in a week in one of the most expert amphibious operation seen so far. Transferred to the European Theatre to assume command of the U.S 19th Corps, Corlett was immediately apprehensive of the planning for the American landings. Why weren't they were using the LVT (Landing Vehicle Tracked) which served both the U.S Marine Corps and U.S Army so well in the Pacific? The Amtrac, or Alligator as it was known by the troops, swam ashore and then carried its cargo of troops forward on its tracks through the beaten zone along the beaches. Bradley and Eisenhower both reacted badly to Corlett's blunt question.

The Allied planners had decided that the optimum time for the landing was at low-tide, exactly the opposite conclusion reached by Rommel. They had no intention of making things easy for the Desert Fox by impaling their landing craft on submerged obstacles at high-tide. At a rising low-tide, the assault waves could be discharged without danger at the edge of the obstacle belt. Said landing craft would then be refloated by the rising tide to return back to sea to pickup additional waves. The obstacle belt would be neatly checked by this decision. Unfortunately, it left the infantry to cover 200 exposed yards to the dubious protection of the overhang of the bluffs. The American planners had also decided to load the assault waves aboard their landing craft eleven miles from the beaches, against the advice of their British allies, who would transfer their own assault waves less than half that distance. Because the assault would take place so early, the transfer at such a distance had to be made at night. Said assault would be made with barely thirty minutes of naval bombardment as soon as dawn illuminated the shore targets. The British had also recommended at least twice the time for the big naval guns to work over the German defenses, extra time they wouldn't begrudge their landing forces. The American planners have also turned down the British offer to share 'Hobart's Funnies', the specialized armoured vehicles meant to breakthrough the beach obstacles and minefields. These bizarre but effective vehicles were the brainchild of Major-General Sir Percy Hobart. In addition to the 'Funnies' he had created and trained the force that would employ them, the British 79th Armoured Division, whose elements would be attached to the British and Canadian first wave divisions. The only specialized vehicle the Americans accepted was the M4A1 Sherman DD Tank, leaving the entire 79th to support the Canadian and British divisions. And finally, the Americans discarded their British allies' advice to land between the strongpoints that defended the five draws. They would instead aim directly for the strongest part of the German defenses.

In perhaps the greatest miscalculation, one in which fortune tipped the scale, Allied Intelligence assumed that only two battalions from the 716th Static Division's 726th Grenadier Regiment was defending Omaha Beach. In reality, those two battalions were subordinated to the 352nd Infantry Division that had arrived in March. Behind the shoreline was the division's 916th Grenadier Regiment which was in readiness to conduct an anti-landing exercise with the newly-arrived SS-Kampfgruppe Wunsche from the 12th SS Panzer Division.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Translated as 'resistance nests', the Widerstandnesten (or WN) were strongpoints that were usually manned by a platoon or company with their personal weapons (Kar98k Bolt-Action Rifles, MP40s, MG34/MG42s, and 50mm Granatwerfer 36 Light Mortars*) augmented with many fixed ones installed in concrete gun casemates, open pits or trenches: anti-tank guns, flamethrowers, infantry guns, howitzers,...
> 
> *These mortars left front-line service due to their relatively short-range and lacking High-Explosive effect. Each infantry battalion of the 716th Static Division were equipped with the Granatwerfer 36.
> 
> *In the Type 1944 Infantry Division organization, an artillery regiment had three battalions that were each equipped with twelve 105mm leFH 18/40 L/31 Light Field Howitzers and a fourth battalion equipped with twelve 149mm sFH 18 L/30 Heavy Field Howitzers.


	13. The American Landings, June 6th: The Beachhead

Things began to go awry for the Big Red One on the night before the invasion. As a result of the re-embarkation of the assault waves in the dark, too many landing craft wandered out of position, especially those carrying the Special Engineer Task Force. As dawn broke over the French shore, the naval gunfire preparation struck the defenses, festooning the bluffs with smoke and setting the grass on fire in many places. In an act of breathtaking misjudgment, the twenty-nine M4A1 Sherman DD Tanks of the 741st Tank Battalion that were to support the 16th Infantry Regiment were released 5,000 yards offshore where twenty-seven promptly sank in the rough sea, carrying most of their crews to their graves. Only two were able to trundle safely ashore to be joined by three more aboard a Rhino Ferry. Watching this catastrophe, the naval officer in charge of releasing the DD tanks of the 743rd Tank Battalion disregarded his similar orders and continued straight for the beach. The sea around Omaha Beach was the heaviest faced by any of the five Allied assault divisions. Ten of the infantry's LCAs (Landing Craft Assault) were swamped and sank. Many of the men were loaded with seventy pounds of equipment that they went down with the tank crews to the bottom. Many of the LCVPs (Landing Craft, Vehicle and Personnel) were riding so low in the water that the waves just sloshed over them, drenching the men in the icy water. The DUKWs carrying the 105mm M2A1 L/22 Light Field Howitzers for the 7th Field Artillery (supporting the 16th Infantry Regiment) and the 111th Field Artillery (supporting the 116th Infantry Regiment) Battalions proved to be grossly overloaded and capsized with the loss of twenty-four artillery pieces. Before they had even approached within rifle shot of the beach, the assaulting waves of invaders had been stripped of most of the tanks, artillery and engineers. None had been lost by the hand of fortune, but by the conscious decisions of their own side. Few men in the LCAs and LCVPs were conscious of these errors. They were watching (when they weren't bailing) the effects of naval gunfire lashing the shore. Clouds of 127mm RP-3 Unguided Air-to-Surface High-Explosive Rockets whooshed off nine British-made LCT(R) Mark IIs* to crash onto the defenders. The effect was so overwhelming that it seemed that nothing on the beach could survive.

The Shermans of the 743rd Tank Battalion approached the beach still aboard their LCT(6)-Class Tank Landing Crafts. One of the LCT(6)s disintegrated in an orange fireball, spilling its cargo of either M4A1 DDs or M4A1 Shermans with wading trunks. The German guns in front of both the Vierville-sur-Mer Draw: WN70* (manned by 10th Company/726th Grenadier Regiment), WN71* (manned by 11th Company/726th Grenadier Regiment), WN72* (also manned by 11th Company/726th Grenadier Regiment), WN73* (also manned by 11th Company/726th Grenadier Regiment), and the Les Moulins Draw (D3 or Dog-Three): WN66* (manned by 8th Company/726th Grenadier Regiment), WN68* (manned by 9th Company/726th Grenadier Regiment), and WN69* (also manned by 9th Company/726th Grenadier Regiment) couldn't miss their targets, nor could the six 155mm K418(f) Heavy Field Guns on Pointe du Hoc nearby. A second LCT(6) was struck and veered off as it quickly began to be filled with water and then sank. The tank crews and U.S Navy crewmen barely had enough time to jump over the side. The naval officer rammed his LCT(6) onto the beach. Steadly, said officer guided his remaining LCT(6)s until each one of them rammed onto the beach. The ramps went down and both the M4A1 Sherman DDs and the M4A1 Shermans with wading trunks bolted ashore, driving through and over the obstacles straight for the heart of the German defenses clustered around the two draws. A dozen were hit in the first seconds from the direct fire of 50mm and 88mm anti-tank guns. More died from the in-direct fire support from both the 352nd Artillery Regiment and 3rd Battalion/84th Nebelwerfer Regiment that were sighted in on the beach from their positions inland. A direct frontal assault was made on the Vierville-sur-Mer Draw, but said assault collapsed as they lost the slugging match with the anti-tank guns. In a few minutes, half of the battalion was wiped out and the rest found shelter under the bluffs to the right and to the left of the draws were anti-tank fire couldn't reach them. The five surviving M4A1 Sherman DDs of the neighbouring 741st Tank Battalion waded ashore with their ungainly canvas surrounds. Three were promptly destroyed when they tried to assault the Colleville-sur-Mer Draw (E3 or Easy-Three) and its defenses: WN62* (manned by 1st Company/726th Grenadier Regiment) and WN61* (also manned by 1st Company/726th Grenadier Regiment). The other two companies of the battalion landed over the beach and failed in similar assaults on both the Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer Draw (E1 or Easy-One) and its defenses: WN64* (manned by 7th Company/726th Grenadier Regiment) and WN65* (also manned by 8th Company/726th Grenadier Regiment), and later the F1/Fox-One Draw that was defended only by WN60* (also manned by 1st Company/726th Grenadier Regiment). The Americans had thrown 128 tanks against Omaha Beach, more tanks than German Heer panzer divisions possessed. In minutes, this force had been wrecked, and the infantry had only begun to come ashore.

The assault waves of the 116th Infantry Regiment were quickly dragged off target by the strong currents that ran along the shore. Able and George Companies were to have landed in Sector Charlie to assault the Vierville-sur-Mer Draw. George Company was pushed a thousands yards to the east as was the entire 5th Ranger Battalion. Able Company, which had already lost two of its four LCAs due to them being swamped, was right on target. And so were the Germans. Their concentrated and well-aimed fire massacred Able Company as the ramps fell into the water. The streams of 7.92x57mm Mauser rounds from the deadly MG42s spewed into the packed open mouths of LCAs and LCVPs. Death beckoned for those who scrambled into the back of the landing craft, along with those who took their own chances in the water. Captain Taylor Fellers, commanding officer of Able Company, and the other thirty-one men with him aboard LCA- _1015_ were all killed. Said landing craft was washed out in the rising tide and carried its load of corpses back among the next assault wave. First-Lieutenant Edward Tidrick, Able Company's XO, was hit in the neck as he jumped out of his LCA. Rising to one elbow, the last words he shouted to his men were 'Advance with the wire-cutters and Bangalores!' before he was decapitated by a 50mm mortar round. Twenty-year-old Second-Lieutenant Edward Gearing's LCVP that carried him and another thirty-one men aboard was blown to pieces 200 yards from Omaha Beach in front of the Vierville-sur-Mer Draw. He eventually dragged himself ashore to find he was the only officer from Able Company who hadn't been killed or wounded. He and barley a third of Able Company would survive that day. For those who survived to get ashore, there was no hope of getting onto the beach itself. They clung to the small protection of the German-made beach obstacles or lay in the surf. The few remaining officers sacrificed themselves in vain to get their men out of the slaughter pen at the water's edge.

Fox Company landed in front of the Les Moulins Draw along with the errant George Company that should've landed east at the Vierville-sur-Mer Draw. The smoke from the burning grass on top of the bluffs covered their landing and they got ashore largely unscathed. Easy Company drifted so far east that it landed in the zone of the 16th Infantry Regiment. The two companies in front of the Les Moulins Draw went to earth behind a shingle embankment in front of said draw, while others tried to hide behind the beach obstacles. All along the beach, the surviving men of the 116th Infantry Regiment huddled in shock beneath the bluffs or the shingle embankments. Those who tried to shelter behind tanks found that the metal hulks attracted German artillery and anti-tank guns. The army and naval engineers of the Special Engineer Task Force have suffered as cruel of an ordeal as Able Company. The current had carried most of their landing craft too far to the east. Those that attempted to land found their stores of demolition charges a curse. Several landing craft were blown apart in fiery explosions when German bullets cooked off the charges. The Gap Assault Teams (joint-U.S Army/U.S Navy demolition engineers) found it impossible to clear any of the eight fifty-foot-wide lanes in the plan. The few that landed right where they were supposed to be, found the infantry hiding for dear life behind the beach obstacles. Worse, the men of the Naval Shore Fire Control Parties (who were the critical links between the army units ashore and the navy destroyers) had discovered that all of their SCR-284 Field Radio Sets were either badly-damaged by saltwater, rough-handling or shrapnel. Also using the SCR-300 Backpack Field Radios or setting up tripod-mounted EE-84 Signal Lamps to communicate with the ships at sea made them direct targets for German mortar crews who skillfully directed their fire onto them. Even German snipers armed with either Kar98k Bolt-Action Rifles or the rare and unpopular Gewehr 41(Walther) Semi-Automatic Rifles were all killing any officer speaking into a SCR-536 'Handie-Talkie' Portable Radio with headshots. By the time the rising tide had stopped them, the army and naval engineers had barely managed to clear two small gaps. The survivors sought refuge from the German fire with the stricken infantry to wait to try again when the tide went out.

Events on the beach with the 16th Infantry Regiment were brutally similar to those inflicted on their comrades in the 116th. Easy and Fox Companies attacked straight against the Colleville-sur-Mer Draw and suffered the same fate as Able Company/116th Infantry at the Vierville-sur-Mer Draw. Within thirty minutes, half of them were dead or wounded. Control of the 16th Infantry on the beach was crippled when the regimental executive officer, who was arriving with the 16th Infantry's Headquarters Company, was killed along with thirty-two of his staff. The men of the Big Red One didn't even have the tank support available to the men of the U.S 29th Infantry Division since half of their supporting tank battalion was on the seafloor several miles offshore and much of the rest was burning on the beach. Both their supporting army and naval engineers had lost half of their men and had cleared only three small lanes through the beach obstacles. Even the Naval Shore Fire Control Parties were having the same bad luck as their comrades who were attached to the 116th Infantry Regiment. All along Omaha Beach, the absence of Hobart's 'Funnies' were also added as men attempted to move through the narrow gaps in minefields while in single-file, making them irresistible targets for German snipers, machine-gunners and mortar crews who cut them down in whole files. There was a single bright spot, though. Four boat-sections from the 2nd Battalion/16th Infantry landed in a section of Omaha that wasn't covered by German fire. The position that would've raked the four boat-sections had never been occupied. These Americans crossed the beach with only two casualties.

The three remaining companies of 1st Battalion/116th Infantry were to follow what was left of Able Company began at 0700 in ten-minute intervals. Charlie Company and the 5th Ranger Battalion were tugged east by the current and landed unscathed. Unfortunately, Baker and Dog Companies of the 116th Infantry and Able, Baker and Charlie Companies from the 2nd Ranger Battalion have all landed into the very same sheet of well-aimed fire that had crushed Able Company/116th Infantry. They too left bodies to bob in the surf and piled around the beach obstacles as the survivors inched forward the paralyzed mass of men at the foot of the bluffs on either side of the Vierville-sur-Mer Draw. All three company commanders of 1st Battalion/116th Infantry had been KIA. Up the coast, the last company of 2nd Battalion/116th Infantry and all of 3rd Battalion/116th Infantry were supposed to land in front of the Les Moulins Draw. Only one from each battalion, How and Item Companies, made it; the others, King, Love and Mike Companies, were pulled 600 yards up the coast by the obstinate current. How Company had the very bad luck to land in front of WN68 and suffered heavy casualties. One man, Staff Sergeant Mike Connor, remembered: 'Two of the men from my platoon got down behind a tetrahedron (hedgehog) to escape the MG42s. A German 105mm artillery shell hit the hedgehog and drove the steel back into their bodies. Me and Sergeant Peter Carlson, who had been with me since Tunisia, helped me tried to pry the steel loose from the men, but couldn't do it. We both figured they were already dead anyway'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The Landing Craft Tank (Rocket) was designed to saturate designated landing beaches with up to 1,066 RP-3 Unguided Air-to-Surface Rockets prior to landing troops on the beach.
> 
> *WN70 major weapons (bunker type): a 76.5mm FK 17(t)* Dual-Purpose Field/Mountain Gun in a H612 Gun Casemate, an open gun pit containing a 75mm leIG 18 L/11.2 Light Infantry Gun, and a 20mm FlaK 38 L/65 Autocannon in a open gun pit as well.
> 
> *The FK 17(t) was the German designation for the Czech-made 76.5mm Feldkanone M. 17 Dual-Purpose Field/Mountain Gun.
> 
> *WN71 major weapons (bunker type): an open gun pit containing a 75mm PaK 40 L/46 Anti-Tank Gun.
> 
> *WN72 major weapons (bunker type): a H667 Gun Casemate*, an open gun pit containing a 75mm PaK 97/38(f) L/34.5 Anti-Tank Gun*, and a 50mm Vf600SK Gun Casemate.
> 
> *The H667 housed the dreaded 88mm PaK 43/41 L/71 Anti-Tank Gun. This type of bunker was designed for enfilade fire with a two-meter thick wall protecting its embrasure. The powerful anti-tank gun in this bunker could control the beach up to 2-3 kilometers.
> 
> *The PaK 97/38(f) was a combination of the barrel from the French Canon de 75mm mle 1897 Modifie 1938 Regimental Artillery Field Gun fitted with a Swiss-made Solothurn muzzle brake and mounted on the carriage of the German 50mm PaK 38 Anti-Tank Gun.
> 
> *WN73 major weapons (bunker type): a single 75mm FK 231(f) Field Gun* in an unknown casemate.
> 
> *The FK 231(f) was the German designation for the French Canon de 75mm mle 1897 Modifie 1938 L/36 Regimental Artillery Field Gun.
> 
> *WN68 major weapons (bunker type): a 50mm Vf600 Gun Pit, an open gun pit containing a 47mm PaK 181(f) Anti-Tank Gun*, and two Panzerstellung Tobruks*.
> 
> *The PaK 181(f) was the German designation for the French Canon de 47mm SA mle 1937 L/50 Anti-Tank Gun.
> 
> *Tobruks were the most common type of fortified position along the Normandy coast, and existed in a wide range of styles. More officially termed as 'Ringstanden', they were all characterized by a single circular opening for a weapon. There were two basic types: the Vf58c and the Vf58d, which differed in construction details. The Tobruks were most commonly used as MG pits, armed with a wide variety of LMG/HMG types. Another very common type was the Vf61a, which was designed for the 50mm Granatwerfer 36 Light Mortar and had a small concrete platform in the center for supporting the mortar. All Tobruks offered a small shelter behind the ring opening to provide cover for the crew during bombardment. Access was through a door in the side or the rear of the structure. One version of the Tobruks commonly seen in Normandy was the Panzerstellung, equipped with a tank turret. These were sometimes on the standard Vf67v Tobruk, but also on modified types that included a common but non-standard U-shaped Tobruk. These usually used turrets from captured French tanks and the two most common were the Renault FT turret and the later APX-R turret.
> 
> *WN66 major weapons (bunker type): a 50mm Vf600 Gun Pit, an open gun pit containing a 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Gun, and two Panzerstellung Tobruks.
> 
> *WN69 major weapons (bunker type): a single 20mm FlaK 38 L/65 Autocannon in a open gun pit.
> 
> *WN62 major weapons (bunker type): two 75mm FK 235(b) Field Guns* in H669 Gun Casemates, and two open gun pits with each one containing a single 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Gun.
> 
> *The FK 235(b) was the German designation for the Belgian-made Canon de 75mm mle TR L/30 Field Gun.
> 
> *WN61 major weapons (bunker type): an H677 Gun Casemate, two 50mm Vf600 Gun Pits, and one Panzerstellung Tobruk with an APX-R turret.
> 
> *WN64 major weapons (bunker type): a single 76.2mm IKH 290(r) Infantry Gun* in an open gun pit, and one 20mm FlaK 38 L/65 Autocannon in a open gun pit as well.
> 
> *The IKH 290(r) was the German designation for the Soviet 76.2mm M1927 L/16.4 Regimental Infantry Gun.
> 
> *WN65 major weapons (bunker type): a 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Gun inside an H667 Gun Casemate, two 50mm Vf600 Gun Pits, and an open gun pit containing a 75mm leIG 18 L/11.2 Light Infantry Gun.
> 
> *WN60 major weapons (bunker type): two 75mm FK 231(f) Field Guns in open gun pits, a 20mm FlaK 38 L/65 Autocannon in a open gun pit too, and a Panzerstellung Tobruk with an APX-R turret.


	14. The American Landings, June 6th: The Guns of Pointe du Hoc

The attack on Pointe du Hoc had gone off forty minutes late. Dog, Easy, Fox and the HQ Companies of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel James Earl Rudder, first had to struggle with the strong coastal current before they could come to grips with any of the Germans. The delay had already cost Rudder the heavy support that would flow with him under the plan. The rest of his 2nd Rangers and the entire 5th Ranger Battalion were to follow him to the beach when he fired a flare into the air with his 37mm M8 Flare Pistol, signalling that his men had scaled the 100-foot cliffs. If the signal hadn't been seen by 0700, the rest of the Rangers were to land with the 116th Infantry Regiment. When his 225 Rangers landed on the shingle beach below the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, their supporting force had already gone ashore at Omaha Beach. Now they would do it alone.

The shockwaves from the six 155mm K418(f) Heavy Field Guns of the 2nd Battery/1260th Army Coastal Artillery Regiment above them pulsed down the cliffs and over the Rangers as they rushed ashore onto the narrow beach. The gunfire support from both the USS  _Satterlee_ (a  _Gleaves_ -Class Destroyer) and the HMS  _Talybont_ (a Type III  _Hunt_ -Class Escort Destroyer) had swept some of the German defenders of the 726th Grenadier Regiment from the clifftops. But enough survived to throw M43 Hand Grenades or fire their MP40 SMGs down at the Rangers. Luckily, there were only few casualties. The Rangers aggressively returned fire as they began an impetuous assault. Two DUKWs carrying 100-ft extended ladders borrowed from the London Fire Brigade drove onto the beach. On the top of each ladder were Rangers with either M1A1 Thompson SMGs or M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifles (BARs) who shot down any Germans that they could see on the clifftops. Down below, rocket-propelled ropes with grappling hooks shot up to anchor on the cliffside, followed by swarming Rangers. The others, who were impatient to follow, either climbed up with their bare hands or driving their V-42 Fighting Knives into the cliff to gain footholds. Here and there, the Germans tried to cut the ropes, sending Rangers hurtling down to the beach. Others were cut down as they tried, sending bodies in either Feldgrau (field-grey) uniforms or wearing M1944 Splinter-A camo pattern smocks down as well. One by one, the Rangers clamoured over the top. The first few were killed, but the others had killed enough Germans to seize a foothold on the clifftop. Abruptly, the remaining Germans fell back towards the trenches and emplacements around the six H671 Gun Casemates themselves.

Rudder pushed his three companies forward. So determined had been their attacks that they had only lost twenty-five men so far. The clifftop was cratered like the face of the Moon by the naval and air bombardments. The holes provided good cover for the Rangers to use as they rushed forward in small groups while others gave them covering fire. The six big guns quivered with each blast that didn't even disconcerted the remaining defenders as they gave the Rangers more casualties as they rushed closer. They reached the trenches and emplacements and tossed in either Mark II 'Pineapple' Hand Grenades or M1 Satchel Charges. The one position that held them up the most was H630 MG Bunker. Rudder's men were crawling up around the sides of said bunker when Kampfgruppe Heyna counterattacked. Upon hearing the volume of fire that swept through the Rangers from the flank, Rudder then saw the ten StuG IIIG Assault Guns of 2nd Company/352nd Panzerjager Battalion and they were supported by 1st Battalion/914th Grenadier Regiment. It was now 0839, and the German artillerymen inside the six H671 Gun Casemates continued to serve their 155mm K418(f) Heavy Field Guns, while Rudder couldn't call in naval gunfire support because his single EE-84 Signal Lamp was wrecked beyond repair and his only SCR-300 Backpack Field Radio wasn't working right because it accidentally got soaked in saltwater.


	15. The American Landings June 6th, 'Dutch' Cota builds a Legend

In the dead space in the German defences on Omaha Beach where Charlie Company/116th Infantry and the 5th Ranger Battalion had landed, the assault force command group landed with Brigadier-General Cota and the 116th Infantry Regiment's commander, Colonel Charles Canham. The beach reeked with disaster, littered with corpses, burning tanks, wrecked landing craft and the other debris of war. The Germans had exactly the same impression from their positions on the bluffs. The commander of 3rd Battalion/726th Grenadier Regiment, who was at his HQ which was the Chateau du Jucoville, called in  _Generalleutnant_ Kraiss at his divisional HQ in Molay-Littry and informed him of the report he received from his 8th and 9th Company commanders who were holding the Les Moulins Draw: 'At the water's edge, the enemy infantry is in search for cover behind the beach obstacles. A great many motor vehicles-among them twelve Shermans-stand burning on the beach. Both the obstacle demolition squads and naval fire control parties had given up their activities. Debarkation from landing craft has ceased...the boats are kept farther out to sea. The fire from our defensive positions and artillery is well-placed and has inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy. A great many dead and wounded lie on the beach...'

Both Cota and Canham were determined that whatever the Germans had thought at the moment wouldn't be the final say in the matter. Canham was wounded in the left wrist shortly after landing, but he refused to fall out. Both he and Cota agreed to separate. Canham went to rally the men further to the west of the Les Moulins Draw, while Cota went to those at hand. A few men had already tried to slip over the bluffs, and most of them had been cut down. The rest were still huddled in clumps of a hundred men or more. And the preregistered German artillery was causing horrific casualties, especially the guns on Pointe du Hoc, as their shells landed amid the huddling troops. Cota walked among them with an assurance that had bled out of them since they first hit the beach. His message was very simple: 'You may die attacking, but you'll surely die if you stay here'. He organized the first group of a hundred men to lay down supressive fire up the bluffs to keep the Germans down, then he found a few men from the Special Engineer Task Force with M1A1 Bangalore Torpedos and had them blast a hole through a shingle embankment with a coil of barbed wire that ran along the base of the bluffs. They blew a small hole in it and a brave Private First Class rushed through only to be killed instantly. The rest of the men were struck fast where they crouched down. Cota raced through the hole in the shingle embankment unharmed. He then yelled for more men to follow him, and they did. No one was hit. For some strange reason, the MG42 that killed the young PFC was silent. Cota led the men through a field of reeds until they found an unoccupied German trench. They followed it up the bluff single-file as Cota hurried them along. Unknown to everyone else, they had passed out of the hell back on the beach. The German positions had been sighted to fire onto the beach and not into their rear behind the bluffs where Cota was now leading the 'Stonewallers' of the 116th Infantry and their Ranger comrades. It was now 0900. Something else had happened. By his very example, Cota had reignited both the initiative and the sense of purpose through the men who had been stunned by their ordeal on the beach. Although they were mingled from many units, they were now a unit again.

They followed the German paths to within a quarter of a mile of the outskirts of Vierville-sur-Mer, where they were taken under fire by a few MG42s. Cota organized a base of fire that drove off the Germans while an ad-hoc assault group attacked into the village. Cota's force entered Vierville-sur-Mer unopposed and were met by another group of Americans who had climbed over the bluffs, which were men from Charlie Company/116th Infantry who managed to escape the slaughter back on the beach. They were soon joined by more men from 2nd Battalion/116th Infantry and the 5th Rangers led by Colonel Canham. Their arrival was a telling indictment of the decision to land directly in front of the heavily-defended draws. The units that had inadvertently landed between the draws had come ashore with very few casualties. More importantly, their nerve hadn't been broken by the Germans' firepower. Their eagerness had gotten them over the bluffs on their own. Cota's force was growing, and it was directly the still-effective German defences of the Vierville-sur-Mer Draw. The USS  _Texas_ (a  _New York_ -Class Battleship) was now taking a personal hand by firing her ten 14"/45 Mark 8 Caliber Guns up said draw. Cota led his men to attack the German defenses from behind, forcing the 10th and 11th Companies of the 726th Grenadier Regiment to surrender quickly. Cota walked down to the beach and announced that Dog-One was now open for business. The sector of Omaha Beach covered by the Vierville-sur-Mer Draw was a sickening sight with thirty to fifty men dead every hundred yards.

Cota moved to blow up the anti-tank wall at the mouth of the draw and start the remaining men and tanks up the draw and through Vierville-sur-Mer to the hedgerow country beyond. A runner arrived to tell him that both the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 116th Infantry had also climbed up the bluffs east of the Les Moulins Draw and had taken it from the rear. These again were units that had landed inadvertently between the draws. The Stonewallers of the 116th Infantry had overcome not only the German defences, but also the suicidal elements of the plan they had to execute, at a cost of over a thousand dead or wounded. Whole companies had been wiped out in the 116th Infantry's 1st and 2nd Battalions. Nothing had gone according to that plan, and it was only the aggresiveness and initiative of individuals like Brigadier-General Norman 'Dutch' Cota and others that had seized this victory.


	16. The American Landings, June 6th: The Presence of the Commander

To the east, the 16th Infantry Regiment had also moved off the beach, due to both its regimental commander, Colonel George Taylor, and the Big Red One's Assistant Division Commander, Brigadier-General Willard Wyman, who did a simultaneous reenactment of Cota and Canham's motivating force. As small units of the 16th Infantry started to move inland off the beach, Taylor and Wyman organized the reduction of the remaining German strongpoints as the regiment was responding to a single will again. The most troublesome was the H677 Gun Casemate that housed one of the dreaded 88mm PaK 43/41 L/71 Anti-Tank Gun (part of WN61) that had shot up a lot of the Shermans from the 741st Tank Battalion that had come ashore. It was the key to the Colleville-sur-Mer Draw and it seemed to be immune to Wyman's and Taylor's efforts. The USS  _Emmons_ (a _Gleaves_ -Class Destroyer) almost beached itself to get to fire her four 5'/38 Mark 12 Caliber Guns accurately. Normally immune to naval gunfire because of its two-meter thick wall protecting its embrasure, the H677 Gun Casemate wasn't immune as the destroyer sent a 5-inch Armor-Piercing shell directly through the firing port. The destroyed gun casemate became the Big Red One's first divisional command post on French soil since WW1, and named it 'Danger Forward'. From there, Major-General Clarence Huebner, commander of the U.S 1st Infantry Division, directed the 16th Infantry Regiment to drive inland and take Colleville-sur-Mer as Cota had taken Vierville-sur-Mer.

The Germans had been lulled into confidence by the message from the Les Moulins Draw that had described the collapse of the landings. That confidence grew higher when it went up the chain of command.  _General der Artillerie_ Marcks, however, was the man on the spot. Reports of Allied paratroopers in the area around Bayeux had drawn him to the area on the right flank of the Omaha Beach landings. The messages he was receiving now told him that the Americans were getting off the beach. Kraiss' initial optimism had quickly evaporated as he realized his beach defenses had failed in a number of places. First, he had  _Oberst_ Ernst Goth's 916th Grenadier Regiment (whose HQ was at Trevieres) to send its two battalions near Colleville-sur-Mer to prevent the Americans from breaking out. Next, he hurriedly recalled Kampfgruppe Meyer, which he had sent off to chase the dummy paratroopers, but they were an hour or two away on foot. And finally, he was able to commit Kampfgruppe Heyna to destroy the Americans on Pointe du Hoc. Initial reports indicated that all six of the guns had been saved just in time. Everything he had, except for the 352nd Pioneer and Field Replacement Battalions, had been committed and the British were also getting off the beach on his right flank.


	17. The American Landings, June 6th: SS-Kampfgruppe Wunsche and the Art of Timing

Marcks had taken the precaution of ordering Wunsche's kampfgruppe from the 12th SS Panzer Division from Balleroy up north to move to the Bayeux-Carentan Highway that ran paralleled to the coast as soon as he learned that the Allies were landing in that sector. Oddly, the kampfgruppe wasn't attacked by the dreaded Jabos (German slang term for Jagdbombers or fighter-bombers), but they had to scatter into the nearby woods for cover when they saw an Allied plane approaching their way and then reassemble when the coast was clear. However, the kampfgruppe arrived 100% intact at Formigny by noon, directly between both Vierville-sur-Mer and Colleville-sur-Mer. The sound of the guns drew his attention to Colleville-sur-Mer on his right. Marcks had admonished him to attack as quickly as possible at any movement off the beach. 'They will be most vulnerable then', he had said. Wunsche assembled both Jurgensen and  _SS-Sturmbannfuhrer_ Wilhelm Mohnke, the commander of the 26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment whose 1st and 2nd Battalions and four regimental support companies were attached to the kampfgruppe, to issue their orders and repeated Marcks' warning. They were joined by  _Major_ Werner Pluskat, commanding officer of 1st Battalion/352nd Artillery Regiment, whose twelve 105mm leFH 18/40 L/31 Light Field Howitzers were firing furiously onto Omaha Beach from around Formigny. Pluskat was able to convey the latest intelligence he had. He surmised that most of the draws had fallen since he had lost contact with the defenders. The firing from Colleville-sur-Mer meant that the Americans were attacking off the beach. Pluskat's artillerymen were now firing only blindly at the preregistered beach, hoping to hit something. He would gladly support Wunsche's counterattack as said Waffen-SS officer sent off the 15th (Reconnaissance) Company/26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment in that direction. Then Pluskat laid out his M1935 Dispatch/Map Case for Wunsche and his subordinates. It was very familiar to them since they had originally planned for an anti-landing exercise with the 352nd Infantry Division in this area for this very day. Marcks had taken one more precaution. He directed that the remaining elements of the 12th SS Panzer Division on their way from Lisieux to be directed to this sector as well.

The 12th SS Panzer Maintenance Battalion stayed behind in Formigny while SS-Kampfgruppe Wunsche drove north to Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer and then turned east to Colleville-sur-Mer, which they would be approaching from the west. They picked up stragglers from the 3rd Battalion/726th Grenadier Regiment who told them that the Americans were swarming off the beach and had taken Colleville-sur-Mer. Small parties of American infantrymen were already being encountered, but they were swept away as the kampfgruppe sped down the road, their coming being hidden by the hedgerows that lined the twisting roads. Wunsche called in direct fire support from both the Grille K SPGs* of the 13th (Heavy Infantry Gun) Company/26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment and Pluskat's artillery battalion. Suddenly, the town was wreathed in explosions. Then Wunsche gave the signal from his Panther G tank: 'Panzer, maaarch!'

SS-Kampfgruppe Wunsche burst into Colleville-sur-Mer with Panther G tanks in the lead, followed by SdKfz 251 Half-Track variants as they spread out through the orchards on either side of the town. Right behind them was the 916th Grenadier Regiment who had just arrived. The Americans didn't had any time to organize a defence, and in any case didn't have any of the heavy weapons to fight tanks because they were all lost on the beach. Their only hope was the few remaining Shermans of the 741st Tank Battalion that had accompanied them off the beach.

They had been surprised first by the artillery that struck down many of them as they moved through the town. Those that reemerged were cut down by the Panther Gs and the MG42s on the speeding SdKfz 251 Half-Track variants. Every time the Americans formed a nest of resistance, the Panther Gs would fire into it at point-blank range until it was silenced. The few M4A1 Shermans (DDs or the Shermans with wading trunks) tried to block the Panther Gs by firing their 75mm M3 L/40 Cannons at them, only to see their shots bounce off the 80mm frontal glacis plate. The German high-velocity 75mm KwK 42 L/70 Cannons had no such problem. The 75mm APCR (Armour-Piercing-Composite-Rigid) rounds tore right through the thin hulls and turrets of the Shermans. In less than fifteen minutes, SS-Kampfgruppe Wunsche had coursed through the town, while the surviving enemy infantry were running back towards the beach. Wunsche's losses had been surprisingly light and his boys, now men, had done well.

His intelligence officer had worked fast on a group of prisoners and reported that they were from the 16th Infantry Regiment of the U.S 1st Infantry Division. The enemy appeared to be moving up from the Colleville-sur-Mer Draw. That was the key point. With no time to loose, SS-Kampfgruppe Wunsche reversed its path through the town and took the road northwest that led to the draw. Again a high-speed approach produced the maximum shock among the columns of infantry that they literally ran over coming north out of the draw. The Panther Gs were crunching over men who couldn't run fast enough to jump onto the hedgerows. The following SS-Panzergrenadiers shot them up from their SdKfz 251 Half-Track variants.

The U.S 1st Infantry Division's Divisional HQ Company had moved into a burned-out H667 Gun Casemate at the mouth of the Colleville-sur-Mer Draw and setup a sign that read 'Danger Forward'. Huebner was standing outside at 1450 when SS-Kampfgruppe Wunsche attacked into Colleville-sur-Mer. A frantic call from the 1st Battalion/16th Infantry's SCR-300 Backpack Field Radio was picked up by the division's SCR-399 Field Radio Set and screamed out: 'Panthers, Panthers, all over the town!' then silence. The nine 57mm M1 L/50 Anti-Tank Guns from the 18th Infantry Regiment's Anti-Tank Company, which had landed in the second wave (which also consisted of the 62nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion, the 197th AAA (Anti-Aircraft-Artillery) AWSP (Automatic-Weapons-Self-Propelled) Battalion, the 1st Engineer Battalion (part of the U.S 1st Infantry Division), the 5th Engineer Special Brigade, the 20th Combat Engineer Battalion, and the 81st Chemical Weapons Battalion), were at the end of the column that was moving up the draw towards Colleville-sur-Mer. He had to get them forward as fast as possible, but the draw and hedgerow-bound road was tightly packed with infantry, a few Shermans, jeeps, half-tracks, M7 Priest SPGs and other soft-skinned vehicles. All hell broke loose up the road. In a few minutes, the sleek lines of a Panther G tank cross careened down the draw, scattering the Americans. Its wide tracks were red with blood and bits of flesh. Its 75mm KwK 42 L/70 Cannon was firing at every vehicle it could spot. A 66mm HEAT round from an M1A1 Bazooka hit the Panther G in the upper gun mantlet and bounced off. The Panther G responded in kind by firing its hull-mounted MG34 Panzerlauf LMG, cutting down the Bazooka crew. Huebner was getting a 57mm M1 L/50 Anti-Tank Gun in place when another Panther G and a SdKfz 251/16D Flamethrower Half-Track* came slithering down the draw. The SdKfz 251/16D fired one of its flame projectors directly into 'Danger Forward', destroying the SCR-399 Field Radio Set and roasting the entire divisional staff alive. Huebner was killed by the second Panther G when he was helping to sight a 57mm M1 L/50 Anti-Tank Gun toward the draw. More Panther Gs came out of said draw to clank up and down the beach, spraying MG fire and shooting directly into any landing craft approaching the beach at the range of only a few hundred yards. The Panther Gs were followed by the SS-Panzergrenadiers in their SdKfz 251 Half-Track variants who crushed any resistance, and later the 916th Grenadier Regiment.

From aboard the USS  _Augusta_ (a  _Northampton_ -Class Heavy Cruiser) Lieutenant-General Bradley watched from his binoculars saw the Panther Gs and the SdKfz 251 Half-Track variants (both the Panther Gs and the SdKfz 251s were painted in the 'Ambush' camo pattern) emerge from the draw and fan out up and down the beach as men fled to the landing craft, only to die in them as they exploded. Bradley, who had served under Patton in both Tunisia and Sicily, looked like if had been struck in the face. Rear-Admiral Alan G. Kirk, commanding the naval task force off Omaha, suggested that he could get some off the beach if they hold off the Germans with naval gunfire, but will loose a lot of their own men from their own guns. But Bradley answered with: 'No, don't kill any more of our boys. It's almost over now'.

And it was. Everywhere, men were surrendering as both SS-Kampfgruppe Wunsche and the 916th Grenadier Regiment swarmed down the beach. A few made their way both east and west away from the Colleville-sur-Mer Draw to linkup with other units, but the bulk of two infantry regiments and all of the attached units had been lost. The proudest infantry division in the U.S Army had been destroyed. It was almost 1600. Not even ten hours had passed since the Big Red One had landed on Omaha Beach.

All that remained on Omaha were the wounded Stonewallers of the 116th Infantry Regiment around Vierville-sur-Mer and Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer and the 29th's second regiment to come ashore, the 115th Infantry. They were informed from the USS  _Augusta_. The Germans' armour in the area had expended its supply of surprise at Colleville-sur-Mer. The U.S 29th Infantry Division was forewarned. Montgomery and Eisenhower had both learned of the disaster at the same time. Bradley recommended that the 29th be withdrawn and Omaha Beach be written off. It was doubtful that the decimated 116th Infantry Regiment, who were already precariously positioned inland, could resist the armoured force that had broken the U.S 1st Infantry Division. They were a National Guard division, for God's sake! How could they do better than the Regular Army's Big Red One? Could the British accept Omaha Beach's second-echelon divisions in their sector? Utah Beach was also in danger too. Montgomery encouraged him to 'fight it out, Brad. And don't Dunkirk on us'. Eisenhower supported his 21st Army Group commander. Fight it out, and prepare the U.S 2nd Infantry Division to be put ashore immediately behind the 29th. Privately, Montgomery was more pessimistic. He immediately asked Dempsey if his British 2nd Army beachheads could accept the U.S 5th Corps' follow-on divisions. Yes, they could.

Both Wunsche and Goth had taken hours to get off Omaha Beach after resistance had collapsed. Thousands of POWs had to be rounded up, and the Colleville-sur-Mer Draw was choked with bodies, debris and wrecked vehicles. It wasn't until early evening (1930) that his kampfgruppe was on the road again with the 916th Grenadier Regiment in tow. He was very proud of his men; they had conducted themselves like veterans and achieved an incredible victory in crushing this beachhead, a victory of the kind that the Germans hadn't tasted since 1942. And the cost for both SS-Kampfgruppe Wunsche and the 916th Grenadier Regiment had been twenty dead, and twenty-two wounded in total. Both Wunsche's and Goth's staffs have both estimated that they had taken at least 6,000 POWs (among them were both Colonel George Taylor, commander of the 16th Infantry Regiment, and Colonel George Smith, Jr, commander of the 18th Infantry Regiment). Their enthusiasm seemed boundless now. Wunsche and Goth would have to husband it carefully*.

The night road-movement proved to be more difficult than the battle. Not all of the Americans had been rounded up. Many small groups had melted into the countryside and clashed with both Wunsche's kampfgruppe and the 916th in the darkness. None of the firefights were serious, just time-consuming. They were met by Kraiss at Formigny late that night (2213) when both SS-Kampfgruppe Wunsche and the 916th Grenadier Regiment closed in on the village and were briefed on the current situation to the west. The Americans had overwhelmed the coastal defenses at both the Les Moulins and the Vierville-sur-Mer Draws and were digging in further inland. Vierville-sur-Mer was a strongpoint, it seemed. At least another infantry regiment had come ashore. Kraiss had attacked the town with Kampfgruppe Meyer but was repulsed with heavy casualties. At least the six guns on Pointe du Hoc were saved by a swift counterattack by Kampfgruppe Heyna. They had the remnants of an American Ranger battalion penned on the tip of the cliff, and the guns continued to pound the landing sites on the beach. The Americans had to be destroyed by tomorrow at the latest, or they would push so many troops through the beachhead that they couldn't be pushed back into the sea. The units that Kraiss had available for the attack were SS-Kampfgruppe Wunsche, the 84th Nebelwerfer Regiment's 1st and 2nd Battalions (with both battalions equipped with thirty 158mm Nebelwerfer 41 MLRs each) that were being rushed forward by the 7th Army, both the 915th and 916th Grenadier Regiments, the 914th Grenadier Regiment (its 1st Battalion was still pinning the Rangers back at Pointe du Hoc), the 352nd Panzerjager Battalion (its 2nd Company of ten StuG IIIG Assault Guns were still supporting the 914th Grenadier Regiment's 1st Battalion at Pointe du Hoc), the 352nd Pioneer Battalion, the 352nd Field Replacement Battalion, the 439th Ost Battalion (which was designated as the 4th Battalion/726th Grenadier Regiment), the 352nd Artillery Regiment, and the remnants of 3rd Battalion/726th Grenadier Regiment. The rest of Kraiss' division (which contained the 1st Battalion/726th Grenadier Regiment, the 3rd Battalion/1716th Artillery Regiment and the 2nd Company/716th Pioneer Battalion) had either been overrun or pushed back by the British to the west where they were barley holding on outside of Bayeux. The 352nd Infantry Division had one last effort left in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The Grille K is based around the chassis of the Czech Panzer 38(t) Light Tank and is armed with the 149.1mm sIG 33/1 L/11 Heavy Infantry Gun. They were created for the Heavy Infantry Gun Companies with six Grille Ks in each Panzergrenadier Regiment.
> 
> *Each Panzergrenadier Regiment and Panzer Pioneer Battalion had a single platoon of six SdKfz 251/16D Flamethrower Half-Tracks.
> 
> *Wunsche and Jurgensen were both later awarded the Oak Leaves to their Knight's Crosses. Meanwhile, Mohnke, Pluskat, and Goth were all awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.


	18. The American Landings, June 6th: Stonewallers and the Price of Tradition

While Kraiss, Goth and Wunsche were conferring with one another at Formigny, Major-General Charles Gerhardt, the commander of the U.S 29th Infantry Division, came ashore. The original plan had called for him to wait until the following day when enough of his men had been landed for Huebner to pass command to him. Now the original plan was gone and Huebner was KIA, and it was a whole new ballgame. Gerhardt was a tough and unrelenting man, having worked his division hard in training and wasn't going to see it crushed on Omaha Beach. He and his divisional staff had arrived with the 115th Infantry Regiment. Just behind them was the 58th Armored Field Artillery Battalion. Both the USS  _Satterlee_ and the HMS  _Talybont_ had laid down enough smoke to obscure the gunners of 2nd Battery/1260th Army Coastal Artillery Regiment at Pointe du Hoc and casualties had been acceptable. The USS  _Texas_ was keeping up a constant drumbeat on the battery, hoping to at least neutralize its fire while the rest of the U.S 29th Infantry Division got ashore. Rudder and his Rangers were evacuated in the night from their bitter toehold on the cliff. All through the night, scattered survivors from the Colleville-sur-Mer disaster crossed through the 29th's lines. Many straggled down the beach, and the largest group, 1st Battalion/18th Infantry Regiment that had been moving cross-country when both SS-Kampfgruppe Wunsche and the 916th Grenadier Regiment attacked down the draw, came in through the Marylanders of the 115th Infantry outside of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer. Gerhardt joined Cota just outside of Vierville-sur-Mer, where the main line of resistance had been setup. Exhaustion had fallen over the remnants of the 116th Infantry Regiment. Men were sleeping where they could and couldn't be roused. The accumulated stress of the landings, the attacks over the bluffs, and finally the German counterattack by Kampfgruppe Meyer from the 352nd Infantry Division had emptied them of both physical and mental reserves. Gerhardt was more concerned about getting the fresher 115th Infantry in defensible positions by morning and landing the division's third and final regiment, the 175th Infantry, just after midnight. The surviving elements of the Big Red One (the 26th Infantry Regiment, the 5th, 32nd, 33rd Field Artillery Battalions, and the 745th Tank Battalion) had been attached to Gerhardt's division as well. They would start landing in the morning. The 29th had to be ready for a stronger counterattack that would hit them in the morning. The tanks that had crushed the U.S 1st Infantry Division were still out there.

One of Marcks' couriers had found the commander of the 25th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment outside of Saint-Lo. Known as 'Panzermeyer',  _SS-Standartenfuhrer_ Kurt Meyer had a surprisingly acute sense of hearing for the 'sound of the guns'. In his wake was not only his own powerful regiment but the rest of the 12th SS Panzer Division.

  * **SS-Kampfgruppe Meyer**
  * 25th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment
  * 12th SS Panzer Artillery Regiment (eighteen 105mm leFH 18/40 L/31 Light Field Howitzers, twelve 149mm sFH 18 L/30 Heavy Field Howitzers, and four 105mm sK 18 L/52 Heavy Field Guns)*
  * 12th SS Panzerjager Battalion (twenty-three Marder IIIM Tank Destroyers and ten Jagdpanzer IV Tank Destroyers)
  * 12th SS Nebelwerfer Battalion (twelve 158mm Nebelwerfer 41 MRLs and four 210mm Nebelwerfer 42 MRLs)
  * 12th SS Panzer Pioneer Battalion
  * 12th SS FlaK Battalion (twelve 88mm FlaK 36 L/56 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Guns, twelve 20mm FlaK 38 L/65 Autocannons, and eight 37mm FlaK 43 L/57 Autocannons)
  * 12th SS Divisional Supply Troops
  * 12th SS Provisioning Battalion*
  * 12th SS Medical Battalion
  * 12th SS Field Replacement Battalion
  * 12th SS War-Reporter/Correspondent Section
  * 12th SS Officer Applicants Training Section
  * 12th SS Military Police Company



He stopped long enough in Saint-Lo to find out from  _Oberstleutnant_ Friedrich von Criegern, the 84th Army Korps' Chief-of-Staff, of where the enemy was. He was directed towards Vierville-sur-Mer to counterattack immediately.

By nightfall, he was filtering his kampfgruppe (he left the 12th SS Divisional Supply Troops, the 12th SS Provisioning and Medical Battalions, the 12th SS War-Reporter/Correspondent and Officer Applicants Training Sections, and the 12th SS Military Police Company between La Cambe and Longueville) into positions for a break-in that would lead him straight into the draws through which the enemy was being reinforced. He peremptorily attached the 915th Grenadier Regiment which was already in position. Kraiss swallowed his resentment and agreed. Panzermeyer was on the spot and ready with his kampfgruppe. Kraiss and his division wouldn't be ready until tomorrow.

At 0200 on the morning of June 7th, SS-Kampfgruppe Meyer attacked. Artillery fell accurately into both the Les Moulins and Vierville-sur-Mer Draws, severing the troops of the U.S 29th Infantry Division that were inland from their lifeline to the beach. The ten Jagdpanzer IV Tank Destroyers of 2nd Company/12th SS Panzerjager Battalion took the lead, firing High-Explosive rounds down the roads leading into the American positions from their high-velocity 75mm PaK 39 L/48 Anti-Tank Guns as they raced forward. The SS-Panzergrenadiers followed in their SdKfz 251 Half-Track variants, closely supported by the Grille K SPGs of the 13th (Heavy Infantry Gun) Company/25th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment. As usual, Meyer led the attack in one of his two favorite command vehicles, a Type 166 Schwimmwagen. Both draws had been crowded with humans and soft-skinned vehicle traffic moving up from the beach. Orange-colored bursts of exploding HE shells lit the draws. Within minutes, they were filled with shredded corpses, twisted equipment and burning vehicles. The accurate artillery fire then shifted onto the beach, which was also equally packed. The Germans had penetrated through the American perimeter around Vierville-sur-Mer in the first rush. Panzermeyer was right behind the first company when the Americans began to react. The remaining Shermans of the 743rd Tank Battalion emerged from the darkness to fire at the still-mounted SS-Panzergrenadiers. The two lead Jagdpanzer IVs were hit in the rear by a combination of M1A1 Bazookas and Shermans before they began to burn as the crews of the two German tank destroyers clambered out to safety.

Meyer wasn't about to shrink back nor were his young SS-Panzergrenadiers. They had quickly dismounted and were attacking in the dark, led by their veteran officers and NCOs. The entire 915th Grenadier Regiment was also attacking the perimeter as well. Slowly, the Stonewallers of the 116th Infantry Regiment were pressed back through Vierville-sur-Mer towards the draw. The hedgerows thinned out here along the bluffs, offering no protection to the short German rushes that had moved their attack so far. Naval gunfire from nearby destroyers had lashed the open ground with High-Explosive shells, preventing the Germans from crossing. It was cold comfort for Gerhardt as his division was bleeding to death. He doubted if the Stonewallers could muster a single fit battalion now. The 115th Infantry Regiment was fresher, but it had been pushed back to the Les Moulins draw as well. Reinforcements would only bunch up on the beach. The wounded now seemed to outnumber the unwounded. He reluctantly recommended that his division be withdrawn.

Gerow passed on Gerhardt's recommendation to Bradley aboard the USS  _Augusta_. His great jaw set before he said: 'Stop all reinforcements. Bring them off'.

To the U.S Navy's eternal credit, they did just that in the few remaining hours of darkness and the early morning. Naval gunfire kept the Germans at bay as first the wounded, then the 5th Ranger Battalion and the three companies from the 2nd Rangers, the troops on the beach, and finally the wasted infantry companies of both the 115th and 116th Infantry Regiments were sent one by one to the beach. The Germans didn't cooperate as artillery from both SS-Kampfgruppe Meyer and the 352nd Infantry Division continued to pound the draws and the beach, adding more to the butcher's bill paid by the 29th. Naval Lieutenant Jeffery Nelson was on one of the LCVPs that were shutting from the beach to the transport ships. By his third trip, the one-inch of water on the metal deck was pink. The wounded were being packed aboard as quickly as possible. Many of them were struck by shrapnel as they filed down the beach and carried aboard the landing craft while bleeding. By the seventh trip in the early morning, the water on the deck of the landing craft was deep-red. Everything except personal weapons was ordered to be abandoned. Corporal Peter Johnston of 2nd Battalion/116th Infantry was one of those filing down the beach. His M1 Garand had been blown out of his hands back at Vierville-sur-Mer, but he saw his grim-faced division commander whose reputation as razor-tongued martinet overwhelmed the Corporal's fatigue. Johnston snatched both a M1A1 Thompson SMG and a nearby 3-Pocket Magazine Case (which carried three 30-round magazines for the M1A1 Thompson) from the debris strewn about everywhere and passed the two-star general with relief. Gerhardt was the last man off Omaha Beach.

Gerhardt stepped into the LCVP almost exactly twenty-three hours after the U.S 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions had approached the shores of Normandy. Having suffered 17,924 killed, wounded, captured or missing, it had been the bloodiest day for the U.S Army since the Battle of Antietam in 1862.*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The 12th SS Panzer Artillery Regiment's 1st Battalion was attached to SS-Kampfgruppe Witt.
> 
> *An SS Provisional Battalion was made up of: an SS Bakery Company, an SS Butcher Company, an SS Divisional Food Services Office, and a SS Field Post Office.
> 
> *Kurt Meyer was awarded the Oak Leaves with Swords to his Knight's Cross for this victory.
> 
> Dietrich Kraiss was awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross.
> 
> SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Fritz Schroder, commander of the 12th SS Panzer Artillery Regiment, was awarded the German Cross in Gold*.
> 
> *The German Cross in Gold was awarded to military personnel for six to eight exceptional acts of bravery or achievements in combat. It was higher than the Iron Cross First Class, but lower than the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
> 
> SS-Sturmbannfuhrer Jacob Hanreich, commander of the 12th SS Panzerjager Battalion, was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
> 
> SS-Sturmbannfuhrer Willy Muller, commander of the 12th SS Nebelwerfer Battalion, was also awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
> 
> SS-Sturmbannfuhrer Rudolf Fend, commander of the 12th SS FlaK Battalion, was also awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
> 
> SS-Sturmbannfuhrer Siegfried Muller, commander of the 12th SS Panzer Pioneer Battalion, was also awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
> 
> SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer, commander of the 12th SS Field Replacement Battalion, was also awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, while many of the 17 to 19-year-old Hitler Youth recruits who saw their first combat were both awarded the Iron Cross Second Class and the General Assault Badge*.
> 
> *The General Assault Badge was awarded to Heer, Waffen-SS or Order Police (Ordnungspolizei) who supported an infantry attack but weren't part of specific infantry units and therefore couldn't qualify for the Infantry Assault Badge.
> 
> Oberstleutnant Karl Meyer, commander of the 352nd Infantry Division's 915th Grenadier Regiment, was also awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
> 
> Oberstleutnant Ernst Heyna, commander of the 352nd Infantry Division's 914th Grenadier Regiment, was also awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
> 
> Oberstleutnant Karl-Wilhelm Ocker, commander of the 352nd Infantry Division's 352nd Artillery Regiment, was also awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
> 
> Hauptmann Werner Jahn, commander of the 352nd Infantry Division's 352nd Panzerjager Battalion was also awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
> 
> Obersoldat Franz Gockel, who fought in WN62 as part of 1st Company of 1st Battalion/726th Grenadier Regiment and managed to retreat with his company commander and the rest of his surviving comrades back to Formigny, was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class and the Black Wound Badge*.
> 
> *The Wound Badge was awarded to those who had been wounded by the result of hostile enemy action or receiving frostbite. The badge had three classes:
> 
> Black (3rd Class) for those wounded once or twice by hostile action (including air attacks)
> 
> Silver (2nd Class) for those being wounded three or four times.
> 
> Gold (1st Class, which could be awarded posthumously) for five or more times wounded.


	19. The American Landings, June 6th: Utah Beach, 0630

The first blow at the Germans defending Utah Beach, as at all of the beaches, was struck from the air by 269 B-26C Marauders of the U.S 9th Bomber Command. Flying at a lower altitude than the B-17Gs at Omaha Beach, they had a better chance to visually identify their targets. However, about a third of the 525 tons of 250-pound bombs that were dropped, still fell seaward of the beach's high-water mark, and many of their weren't targets weren't located at all. As at Omaha Beach, the U.S Army Air Force's contribution was negligible.


	20. The American Landings, June 6th: German Forces on Utah Beach

Defending Utah Beach was the 709th Static Division (commanded by _Generalleutnant_ Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben). Formed in May 1941 as an occupation division, the 709th was later converted into a static division in November of 1942. The static divisions lacked organic transport, even horses. Rifle companies had only one horse for the commander and two draught horses for the field kitchens. Aside from its lack of mobility, the division also suffered from poor personnel allotment as it was periodically combed for its most able troops who were transferred to the Russian Front. In October 1943, the entire 1st Battalion of the 739th Grenadier Regiment (commanded by  _Oberst_ Walther Kohn) was transferred to the Eastern Front. This process left the 709th Static Division with over-age troops, soldiers with medical problems, and wounded veterans; in January 1944, the average age of its troops was 36-years-old. During the autumn of 1943, the 709th was reinforced by four eastern battalions. The 729th Georgian Battalion (made up of former Red Army POWs from the Soviet Republic of Georgia) was substituted for the 739th Grenadier Regiment's missing 1st Battalion, while the 795th Georgian Battalion was also attached to said regiment and designated as 4th Battalion/739th Grenadier Regiment. The 649th Ost Battalion (made up primarily of former Red Army POWs from the Ukraine) was attached to the 729th Grenadier Regiment (commanded by  _Oberst_ Helmuth Rohrbach) and designated as 4th Battalion/729th Grenadier Regiment. The remaining battalion, the 549th Ost, was attached to the divisional headquarters (which was located at the Chateau de Chiffrevast in Tamerville). The 709th was further weakened by the incorporation of a high percentage of troops recruited from  _Volkliste III_ , mostly Poles from the border areas incorporated into Germany after 1939*. Von Schlieben later noted that their reliability in combat was doubtful, and he didn't expect the eastern battalions would 'fight hard in cases of emergency'. In spite of the mediocre quality of the troops, the 709th was relatively large for a static division with 12,655 men including 2,155 Georgian and Ukrainian troops, and 335 unarmed Soviet 'Hiwis' used in construction and non-combat roles. It had twelve infantry battalions instead of the nine found in the new pattern Type 1944 infantry divisions. The division's 1709th Artillery Regiment (commanded by  _Oberst_ Robert Reiter) had three battalions; the 1st had eight 100mm leFH 14/19(t) Light Field Howitzers and eight 105mm K331(f) Field Guns*, the 2nd with four 105mm K331(f) Field Guns and twelve sFH 414(f) Heavy Field Howitzers, and the 3rd with twelve 76.2mm PaK 39(r) Anti-Tank Guns*. The 709th Panzerjager Battalion was equipped with nine Marder I Tank Destroyers*, twelve towed 75mm PaK 40 L/46 Anti-Tank Guns, and nine 37mm FlaK 43 L/57 Autocannons. Tank support was provided by the 101st Panzer Replacement and Training Company, which was weakly equipped with only ten Panzerjager 35R(f) Tank Destroyers*. The 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 919th Grenadier Regiment (commanded by  _Oberstleutnant_ Gunther Keil) held a total of 25 strongpoints from Le Grand Vey in the south to Aumeville in the north, a distance of about 15 miles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Early in the war, the Volksdeutsche category referred to draftees of German ancestry from Eastern Europe and the Balkans, including Hungary and Romania. Because of the desperate manpower shortages in 1943, a broader range of men were inducted, including Poles from the western provinces that were absorbed into the Third Reich, as well as Alsatians (French-Germans) and other nationalities from the border regions who had previously been excluded as 'unreliable'.
> 
> *The K331(f) was the German designation for the French Canon de 105mm mle 1913 Schneider L/28.4 Field Gun.
> 
> *The PaK 39(r) was the German designation for the Soviet 76.2mm M1939 (USV) L/42 Divisional Field Gun converted into anti-tank guns.
> 
> *The Marder I was built around the chassis of the Lorraine 37L Tracked Carrier and armed with the 75mm PaK 40/1 L/46 Anti-Tank Gun.
> 
> *The Panzerjager 35R(f) was built around the chassis Renault R35 Light Infantry Tank and armed with the 47mm PaK 38(t) L/43 Anti-Tank Gun.


	21. The American Landings, June 6th: U.S Forces on Utah Beach

The U.S 4th Infantry Division (commanded by Major-General Raymond Barton) had been reactivated in 1940 and at first was equipped as a motorized infantry division. This concept was dropped, and the division was reverted back into a conventional organization in August 1943 prior to being sent to the U.K. While Bradley had insisted on using at least one experienced division in the assault on neighboring Omaha Beach, Utah Beach was viewed as a less demanding mission. Nevertheless, it required the use of a well-trained and ably led division, and the 4th was chosen. The assault would be conducted by the 8th Infantry Regiment (commanded by Colonel James Van Fleet) while supported by the 70th Tank Battalion, the most heavily-experienced separate tank battalion in the U.S Army, which had previously seen combat as a light tank battalion in the Mediterranean Theatre. For D-Day, two of its companies were equipped with M4A1 DD tanks, while Charlie Company was equipped with M4A1 Shermans with wading trunks. The battalion's light tank company (equipped with M5A1 Stuarts) would land later on D-Day and assigned to support the U.S 82nd Airborne Infantry Division. Also supporting the infantry were the 237th and 299th Combat Engineer Battalions that were to destroy the beach obstacles.


	22. The American Landings, June 6th: Shore Batteries vs the U.S Navy

The noise of the bombardment, however, awoke  _Leutnant_ Arthur Jahnke, commander of WN5* (manned by a platoon from 3rd Company/919th Grenadier Regiment) on Utah Beach. A week earlier, Rommel held a small parade in front of WN5 to pin the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on Jahnke for his gallant actions on the Eastern Front. The young officer was also surprised to hear gunfire coming from the direction of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont and sent a patrol to find out what the hell was going on. They returned with several captured American paratroopers from the U.S 101st Airborne Division and news that a battle was raging in the village. The Americans were being driven out of it and towards Houdienville, the village at the western end of a causeway that led over an area inundated with water, straight over the beach and WN5. Jahnke was immediately presented with a choice of crises as the invasion fleet offshore opened fire, and WN5 started to crumble. It was 0550.

As dawn began to illuminate the armada lying offshore, German Army and Naval coastal batteries began firing at 0535. Jahnke's position hadn't been notified when fifteen minutes later, the U.S Navy began the prearranged counterbattery fire that began to shake WN5 apart. In less than half an hour, WN5 was inoperative, its two Vf600 Gun Pits, its single 47mm PaK 181(f) Anti-Tank Gun, and all four of mortar and MG Tobruks were disabled. Only the single H667 Gun Casemate armed with a 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Gun, the H612 Gun Casemate armed with a 75mm FK 38 L/34 Field Gun, and the Panzerstellung Tobruk remained operational. Jahnke was slightly wounded and most of his men who weren't killed had been stunned by the ear-splitting bombardment. The naval guns kept pounding their targets until the first landing craft hit the beach.

Further up the coast, 2nd Battery/1261st Army Coastal Artillery Regiment (armed with four 105mm K331(f) Field Guns in H650 and H671 Gun Casemates) at Azeville and 2nd Battery/260th Naval Artillery Battalion (armed with four 210mm K39/40 L/22 Heavy Siege Guns in H683 Gun Casemates and a 149.1mm SK L/45 Naval Gun in a M272 Gun Casemate) at Saint-Marcouf, were having much better luck. At 0500, the commander of the Saint-Marcouf Battery,  _Oberleutnant zur See_ Walter Ohmsen, picked up the phone to call  _Kapitanleutnant_ (Lieutenant) Karl Wiese, commander of the 260th Naval Artillery Battalion, at Cherbourg to report 'several hundred ships have been sighted in the Bay of the Seine River' and then asked if they were any German vessels in the area. Wiese paused shortly to quickly checked with  _Konteradmiral_ (Rear-Admiral (Lower-Half)) Walter Hennecke, commander of Normandy Coast Defense Command, who said no. Wiese quickly relayed the info to Ohmsen and gave him permission to open fire.

The Germans and Americans opened fire simultaneously, and both with unerring accuracy. The U.S naval gunners dropped shells right on top of the battery. The German gunners had to rely on the optical rangefinders in the M178 Fire-Control Bunker to help them find the correct range to their targets. Soon, one of the 210mm shells hit the USS  _Corry_ (a  _Gleaves_ -Class Destroyer) between her funnel and the bridge. Thinking it was a light cruiser, an understandable error at that range, the Germans cheered as smoke and fire poured out of the destroyer and both its bow and stern rose as the  _Corry_ broke her back and sank.

'That's the stuff! Keep it up!' shouted Ohmsen to his gunners from inside the M178 Fire-Control Bunker.

The Americans got the next hit and wrecked the 149.1mm SK L/45 Naval Gun in its M272 Gun Casemate, but the Germans thought the trade acceptable. They damaged the USS  _Hobson_ (another  _Gleaves_ -Class Destroyer) and then the USS  _Fitch_ (another  _Gleaves_ -Class Destroyer) was hit by the Azeville Battery (commanded by  _Hauptmann_ Hugo Treiber). The  _Fitch_ tried to evade the shelling by zigzagging, but she suffered hit after hit. One of the 105mm shells apparently struck her rudder, causing her to keep going in circles. Eventually, the USS  _Fitch_ stopped and began listing to port. Her aft-deck was slipping deeper and deeper into the water before the destroyer capsized.

In their fury, both the USS  _Quincy_ (a  _Baltimore_ -Class Heavy Cruiser) and the USS  _Nevada_ (a  _Nevada_ -Class Battleship) concentrated their fire on the Saint-Marcouf Battery. At 0990, one of the shells from one of the  _Nevada_ 's ten 14"/45 Mark 8 Caliber Guns struck right through the embrasure of one of the H683 Gun Casemates. The twenty-by-twenty-six-foot armoured door for said casemate had been shipped from the depot in Bad Segeberg, but had never arrived and it was probably either lost in some bombed out French railway depot or was waiting on some siding with other countless vital parts. With two guns destroyed and another damaged, Ohmsen directed the fire of his two remaining functional guns onto the beach that were alive with landing craft and troops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *WN5 major weapons (bunker type): a 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Gun in a H667 Gun Casemate, two Vf600 Gun Pits, a 47mm PaK 181(f) Anti-Tank Gun in an open concrete gun pit, a 75mm FK 38 L/34 Field Gun in a H612 Gun Casemate, and a Panzerstellung Tobruk with a Renault FT-17 turret armed with a 37mm SA18 L/21 Cannon.


	23. The American Landings, June 6th: 'Teddy' Roosevelt Jr. in the First Wave

The U.S 4th Infantry Division was coming ashore with the 8th Infantry Regiment and three attached sub-units in the first wave. Followed by the 22nd and 12th Infantry Regiments. The 359th Infantry Regiment (commanded by Colonel Clark Fales) from the U.S 90th Infantry Division (commanded by Brigadier-General Jay MacKelvie) would land last on D-Day. The 4th hoped to quickly overwhelm the beach defenses and rush across the northern three of four beach exits, the western ends of which all should be held by the American paratroopers of the U.S 101st Airborne Division. The 8th Infantry was to seize the third beach exit and push down the road from Sainte-Mere-du-Mont to Les Forges and then cross the Merderet River to link up with the U.S 82nd Airborne Division. The 22nd Infantry Regiment (commanded by Colonel Hervey Tribolet) was to push north and seize the fourth beach exit at Les-Dunes-de-Varreville and continue moving north to take Quineville and its high ground. The 12th Infantry Regiment (commanded by Colonel Russell Reeder) was to follow them over the beach exits and move to the high ground northeast of Sainte-Mere-Eglise that was held by the U.S 82nd Airborne Division. By the end of D-Day, a large triangular-shaped beachhead was to have its base running from Quienville to the mouth of the Vire River and its point stretching across the Merderet River. The plan all depended on the two American airborne divisions to seize the crossings over the Douve River running through Carentan, the beach exits, the communications hub of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and the bridgeheads over the Merderet River.

Unknown to the invasion force speeding to Utah Beach, both airborne divisions were in serious trouble. The 82nd had failed to take the bridgeheads over the Merderet River and was barely holding onto Sainte-Mere-Eglise against both SS-Kampfgruppe Witt of the 12th SS Panzer Division and the 91st Airlanding Division. The 101st had failed to take the crossings over the Douve River and had captured only the third and fourth beach exits. The paratroopers of three understrength battalions were at this moment being driven out of Sainte-Mere-du-Mont and into the first and second beach exits by SS-Kampfgruppe Witt. As they withdrew eastward toward the beach exits, they could hear the rumble of heavy artillery hitting the German coastal defenses. At the same time, 1st Battalion/6th Fallschirmjager Regiment (commanded by  _Hauptmann_ Emil Priekschat) was passing through Carentan to reinforce SS-Kampfgruppe Witt.

As at the other beaches, the infantry was to be preceded in the first wave by DD tanks launched two miles instead of four from shore as originally planned. At least someone showed common sense and the initiative to change the order when the rough sea made it manifestly suicidal to launch this far out. The Germans threw this part of the landing plan out of sequence when one of the two LCC(1)-Class Control Landing Crafts that were guiding in the eight LCT(6)s that were carrying the thirty-two M4A1 Sherman DDs from the 70th Tank Battalion struck a mine and leaped out of the water like a breaching whale and exploded. The loss of one of the two LCC(1)s pushed back the launching of the DDs by fifteen minutes as one of the LCT(6)s let its ramp down onto another submerged mine. On another LCT(6), Sergeant Orris Johnson watched as the front of the LCT(6) shot upwards and its cargo of four M4A1 Sherman DDs 'soared more than a hundred feet into the air before tumbling slowly end over end, and plunging back into the water and disappeared'. The remaining seven LCT(6)s launched their DD tanks into the relatively calm water sheltered by the Cotentin Peninsula. All surviving twenty-eight M4A1 Sherman DDs made it ashore, right after the infantry landed ten minutes earlier.

Luckily, the coastal current that was playing havoc with the landings on Omaha Beach at the same time set the two-battalion assault wave of the 8th Infantry Regiment down 2,000 yards south of the intended beach. They rushed ashore through the sparse beach obstacles against weak resistance from a single German strongpoint (WN5) that had been pulverized by the earlier naval bombardment. Had they landed where they planned, they would have been up against two major German strongpoints. The M4A1 Sherman DDs quickly knocked out both of WN5's H667 and H612 Gun Casemates and its only Panzerstellung Tobruk, before blowing holes through the seawall to allow the infantry to pour through and mop up the demoralized defenders. Jahnke, ordered the remote-control SdKfz 302 Goliath Demolition Tracked Vehicles (armed with 130-pounds of High-Explosives) to be launched against the crowded assault waves as they struggled ashore, but none would start due to the naval bombardment having severed the wire-guidance cables to their hidden nests. By then, it didn't matter anymore as the Americans were all around WN5 and ready to blow it up. Jahnke and the surviving men of his platoon surrendered their position.

Moving among the American troops was the U.S 4th Infantry's feisty and arthritic Assistant Division Commander, Brigadier-General Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt Jr., able son of the 26th President of the United States of America and a man of both singular determination and good judgment. He was the only Allied general officer to come over the beaches with the first wave that day. Cota of the U.S 29th Infantry Division had come in ashore shortly after the first wave.

His presence there wasn't part of the plan. Unable to bear not sharing the danger of his men, Teddy wheedled a reluctant permission out of his division commander. He leaned on his cane, with his M1938 Map Case in hand, by one of the few tetrahedrons on the beach with the members of his staff around him. A fast map study revealed that they had landed on the wrong beach, some 2,000 yards south of where they had planned to land at. With the rest of the division about to arrive in quick succession on 'some' beach, Roosevelt jabbed his cane into the sand and decided that they would follow onto this beach, where the battle was joined, and to seize whatever opportunities that presented themselves. To do so, they had to get inland. He dispatched his two leading battalions with armored support from the newly-landed 746th Tank Battalion to the third and first beach exits. The 3rd Battalion/8th Infantry and the 70th Tank Battalion, he directed to beach exit two. 3rd Battalion/22nd Infantry was also landing and would be sent north to begin the drive on Quienville. The U.S 4th Infantry Division had been lucky so far. The German coastal defence had been broken with fewer than 200 casualties.


	24. The American Landings, June 6th: Houdienville and the Battle for the Causeway

Both the luck and the opportunities were about to desert them. Roosevelt ordered his battalion commanders to seize and cross the three nearby causeway exits over the inundated areas behind the beach and dunes and make contact with the U.S 101st Airborne Division. The Screaming Eagles, however, were bringing the contact to them. Fewer than three hundred had escaped the German attack on Sainte-Maire-du-Mont to barricade themselves in the villages of both Houdienville and Poupeville, covering the access to the causeways on the western side of the inundated areas. The SS-Panzergrenadiers of the 12th SS Panzer Division had harried them all the way, but the hedgerows made every few yards a good delaying point. They broke up into two smaller groups. The smaller group moved off to the southeast towards Poupeville and beach exit one. The larger group entered Houdienville to cover beach exit two. Many of the less than 200 paratroopers who reached the two villages were wounded, and few had much ammo left. If they lost these two villages, the landings on Utah Beach behind them would be smashed. Following them was the mixed kampfgruppe of SS and Fallschrimjagers who had been recently reinforced by 1st Battalion/1058th Grenadier Regiment of the 91st Airlanding Division.  _SS-Sturmbannfuhrer_ Prinz sent 5th Company/12th SS Panzer Regiment, commanded by  _SS-Obersturmfuhrer_ Ernst Kiesch, with the Grenadier battalion riding on the Panzer IVHs after the smaller group of paratroopers. Prinz pursed the larger group with both his 6th and HQ Companies and 3rd Battalion/26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment. He put both the 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion and the 16th (Reconnaissance) Company/6th Fallschrimjager Regiment in reserve.

The American paratroopers had barley setup a hasty defense in Houdienville to repel the following Germans when from across the causeway, a crowd of Germans from 1st Battalion/919th Grenadier Regiment came running towards them after abandoning their defensive positions on the beach. Waiting until they were close did the paratroopers opened fire. About seventy Germans were cut down before the survivors threw down their weapons and surrendered. The POWs explained that they were fleeing from the beach. A German patrol got halfway across the causeway when it ran into the lead elements of 3rd Battalion/8th Infantry. The prisoners were hurried along to the beach as the infantry mounted the Shermans of the 70th Tank Battalion in their column and raced into the village. The SS-Panzergrenadiers had crashed into Houdienville about the same time with 6th Company/12th SS Panzer Regiment in support. The Americans and the Germans collided in a meeting engagement like two locomotives.

As the German and American tanks raced into the little village square at the same time, with the reaction time of the lead Panzer IVH was faster as it fired the critical first shot through the lead Sherman and killed the one behind it. The third Sherman was faster and killed the lead Panzer IVH in the side*, causing its surviving crew to bail out. There was no advantage in equipment, only in courage and training. The battle now engulfed Houdienville and spilled into the nearby fields as each side tried to get around the other's flank. The M4A1 Shermans and Panzer IVHs were firing at point-blank range in the narrow village streets. Little stone houses collapsed as German-made 75mm KwK 40 L/48 Cannons and American-made 75mm M3 L/40 Cannons fired into doorways, chasing squads of infantry. For the Germans, the only two advantages they had were both the better killing power of their 75mm KwK 40 L/48 Cannons and the 80mm frontal armour of the Panzer IVH, while the American's only advantage was their faster electrical traverse system in the turrets of the M4A1 Shermans. Prinz was an Eastern Front veteran who was faster to use all of his available resources than his less-experienced American opponent. He called in artillery support from the four Wespe SPGs detached from the 1st Battalion/1st SS Panzer Artillery Regiment that was attached to SS-Kampfgruppe Witt. The 105mm HE shells landed at the end of the causeway, across the Americans' rear, and causing heavy casualties in the reserve company that had been stopped there. His American opposite also had artillery support, but in the form of a Naval Shore Fire Control Party. With the village splintering around them, the fire controllers were able to use their SCR-284 Field Radio Set to call in fire missions. Both the USS  _Quincy_ and HMS  _Black Prince_ (a  _Bellona_ -Class Light Cruiser) responded as sheets of steel soon began raining down on the outskirts of Houdienville and among the houses themselves. The Germans were stopped cold by the barrage that reminded them of the fury of massed Soviet artillery on the Eastern Front. Prinz died as his command tank was bracketed by a salvo from  _Black Prince_ 's eight QF 5.25-inch Mark II Dual-Purpose Guns. Prinz's executive officer and  _SS-Sturmbannfuhrer_ Erich Olboeter, commander of 3rd Battalion/26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment, both kept their heads and got the survivors back into the cover of the hedgerows to their rear and made their way back (along with the four Wespes) to SS-Kampfgruppe Witt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The frontal armour of the Panzer IVH was 80mm thick, causing the Allied tankers to always aim for the weaker side armour.


	25. The American Landings, June 6th: The Battle on Utah Beach

The paratroopers heading for Poupeville no longer had to go over-country that wasn't so restricted by hedgerows. There had been fewer than one hundred left in the group, and it was just too far to the village. The Panzer IVHs were faster and ran 'em down halfway there. A few dispersed into the hedgerows while the remaining eighty-three surrendered.  _SS-Obersturmfuhrer_ (First-Lieutenant) Kiesch was impatient to move on; he was only 22-years-old and a child of the Eastern Front. What he did next was easy. He lined all of the captured paratroopers up and mowed them down, much to the shock and horror of the Grenadiers who had just climbed back onto the Panzer IVHs. The kampfgruppe roared to life and sped down the road towards the first beach exit.

The M4A1 Shermans of Charlie Company/746th Tank Battalion were in the lead of the task force that was built around 2nd Battalion/8th Infantry that had just passed through Poupeville when they heard MG fire from the southwest. The task force commander ordered them to speed to 'the sound of the guns'. Again, the Germans were faster. Inadequate recon led the Americans right into the ambush that was hastily setup by 5th Company/12th SS Panzer Regiment (which had sent out adequate recon). In a few minutes, ten M4A1 Shermans were burning as the Panzer IVHs moved out to attack the infantry before they could dig-in. A platoon of three 57mm M1 L/50 Anti-Tank Guns shot up two of the Panzer IVHs before they were blown away. Another Panzer IVH fell victim to the remaining five M4A1 Shermans. These were trying to back up over the hedgerows and getting hung up. Each one was hit and burned, catching fifty yards of hedgerow on fire. The Panzer IVHs kept moving with the Grenadiers following to drive the Americans back down the road. The Germans shouldered 2nd Battalion/8th Infantry off the road and drove through the village and into the causeway. Leaving the 3rd and 4th Companies of 1st Battalion/1058th Grenadier Regiment to guard the entrance, sixteen Panzer IVHs with the rest of the Grenadiers riding atop advance over the causeway.

Roosevelt's attention had been focused on the battle at Houdienville. It was suddenly torn to the south as shells started screaming laterally down the beach from that direction. Advancing down the coast road and across the beach was a wave of sixteen Panzer IVHs with Grenadiers in the rear. They overran non-combat engineers and rear elements of the 8th Infantry Regiment before shooting directly into the landing craft that were lining the beach as they emptied the following battalions of the 22nd Infantry Regiment. An M16 Anti-Aircraft Half-Track belonging to the 537th AAA (Anti-Aircraft-Artillery) AWSP (Automatic-Weapons-Self-Propelled) Battalion near Roosevelt turned its M45 Quadmount that was equipped with four M2HB HMGs towards the Germans, cutting down many of the following Grenadiers. The USS  _Butler_ (a  _Gleaves_ -Class Destroyer) ran inshore parallel to the attack, firing her four 5'/38 Mark 12 Caliber Guns at the tanks and infantry moving down the beach until her guns grew red as they picked off one Panzer IVH after another at 800 yards. Getting closer and closer to the shore, the  _Butler_ ran aground with a force that threw her crew to the deck. They were on their feet again as the ship resumed. Soon, only two Panzer IVHs (Kiesch's command tank and the other commanded by  _SS-Unterscharfuhrer_ (Sergeant) Willy Kretzschmar) and 25 surviving Grenadiers (including the battalion commander) were running towards the safety of the dunes.

The attack had been broken, but had badly disrupted landing operations and caused severe casualties on the beach. Among them was Brigadier-General Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt Jr., who had fallen at the side of the M16 Anti-Aircraft Half-Track due to a fatal heart attack*.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on July 1st, 1944.


	26. The American Landings, June 6th: Siege of Sainte-Mere-Eglise

When what remained of half of his kampfgruppe that he had sent towards the coast earlier had rejoined his main column (except for the 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion),  _SS-Brigadefuhrer_ Franz Witt began his attack on the Americans who were holding a line on the edge of Les Forges, about two miles south of Sainte-Mere-Eglise. The guns of Witt's two leading Panzer IVH companies began firing directly into the American positions along the hedgerows. The few American anti-tank weapons were quickly outclassed. The men of 3rd Battalion/26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment pressed forward under the cover of the Panzer IVHs as the Americans withdrew from the hedgerow line.

Matthew Ridgway's 82nd Airborne Division was in the center of a vice. His division had been badly scattered in the drop, and he been able to assemble at least 1,750 men, and not all of the were from his division; he had the completely intact 450-man strong 377th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion (PFAB) (which had little to no ammo for its twelve 75mm M1A1 L/18.4 Pack Howitzers*) from the 101st Airborne Division, and at least another hundred from the Screaming Eagles. This was slightly more than the strength of one of his regiments that had jumped into the night before. In the early morning hours, 3rd Battalion/505th PIR had seized the key objective of Sainte-Mere Eglise with fewer than 200 men. The 2nd Battalion/503rd PIR with about 400 men was just north of the town with two of the 377th PFAB's four 6-Pounder Mark IV (Mark III Carriage) L/43 Anti-Tank Guns, and the 1st Battalion/503rd PIR (with the 377th PFAB's two remaining AT guns in support) was at the eastern crossing of the Merderet River at La Fiere with about five hundred men. Several hundred more men were roaming as they were lost inside the two-mile diameter circle with Sainte-Mere-Eglise on one side and Les Forges on the other. Pressing up against the circle from the south was the strong SS-Kampfgruppe Witt from the 12th SS Panzer Division that had fought its way up from Carentan in the predawn hours against small isolated groups of scattered paratroopers. As he gathered more and more men, Ridgway had sent them to block this force at Les Forges. Other men, who came in from the east, reported a German infantry force between them and the coast. He had little word so far from his other two regiments that were dropped west of the Merderet River and no word of the landings at all. The immediate threat would be from the German panzers attacking Les Forges, and Ridgway's only recourse was to concentrate his strength for the defence of Sainte-Mere-Eglise. His dilemma was that other than the two small battalions stationed there, the Germans were closer to the town than the other two battalions-and the Germans were driving while his men were on foot. Ridgway could hear the gunfire to the south was coming closer and knew that his ragtag force wouldn't be able to hold the Germans off for very long. It was about 0830 when fighter-bombers from the RAF's 2nd Tactical Air Force arrived over the town and circled. So his prayers had been answered after all! Using an EE-84 Signal Lamp, Ridgway quickly directed them to the fighting in the south.

Witt and his men had pushed almost to Fauville, a mile from Sainte-Mere-Eglise, when four RAF Typhoon Mark Ib fighter-bombers attacked. Launching RP-3 UASRs (Unguided-Air-to-Surface-Rockets) and strafing with their 20mm Hispano Mark II Autocannons, the Typhoons made pass after pass as they swooped down on any German vehicle they could see. The FlaK/MG Squad (consisting of three SdKfz 251/17D Anti-Aircraft Half-Tracks*) from 9th Company/26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment and commanded by  _SS-Unterscharfuhrer_  Willi Stempel put up a brave defense as the fired their 20mm KwK 38 L/55 Autocannons. They brought down two of the Typhoons crashing into the ground and sent a third one trailing smoke off into the distance. When they left, ten armoured or soft-skinned vehicles had been either wrecked or damaged, and over twenty men KIA or wounded.

All over the Cotentin Peninsula that morning, both German and American orders were going astray in the confusion. American paratroopers from both the U.S 82nd and the 101st Airborne Divisions were still roaming in small groups all over the drop-zones as they clashed with German patrols. The rash of small contacts was overwhelming the German ability of tactical intelligence to find patterns, except for one. The main road between Cherbourg and Carentan had been cut and the Americans had captured Sainte-Mere-Eglise. The units that Rommel had sent through Carentan in the dark of the morning had known as much and had developed the situation by finding the enemy and engaging them. SS-Kampfgruppe Witt had dispersed into the hedgerows, hamlets and woods after the morning's naval gunfire and air attacks. Witt made contact with both the 795th Georgian (which was attached to the 739th Grenadier Regiment and designated as said regiment's 4th Battalion) and the 549th Ost Battalions of the 709th Static Division which was defending the coast. He placed them both under his command and moved the 549th to Sainte-Marie-du-Mont and put the 795th on the high ground west of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, able to attack to the east or defend from the west. Witt also began gathering the various FlaK and artillery units scattered within the reach of his kampfgruppe. By 1100, he had gained a sketchy but fairly accurate picture of what was going on in the Cotentin Peninsula. A simple climb into a nearby village church bell-tower explained the massive landings underway. The 795th Georgian Battalion had reported not only American paratroopers to the east, but tanks and infantry as well. To the north of the Georgians, the German inland fortifications were heavily-engaged with the tanks and the infantry. To the south, both the 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion and the 16th (Reconnaissance) Company/6th Fallschirmjager Regiment had retreated to Saint-Come-du-Mont to dig in. Witt also had contact with both the 1057th and 1058th (whose 1st Battalion had been destroyed on the beach) Grenadier Regiments of the 91st Airlanding Division, though the divisional headquarters (which was located at the Chateau de Bernaville in Picauville) seemed confused and sluggish. Their commander,  _Generalleutnant_ Wilhelm Falley, was still stuck at Rennes (due to being injured in an air raid earlier at dawn). At least the 91st's two regiments were pressing on Sainte-Mere-Eglise from both the north and from the west. Witt and his kampfgruppe were in the south and the Georgians were to the east.

By noon, the  _SS-Brigadefuhrer_ had managed to reestablish contact with 84th Army Korps HQ, and by 1300 with Pemsel at 7th Army HQ. As senior officer in the Cotentin Peninsula, Pemsel placed Witt in command of all forces around the lodgement to include both the 91st Airlanding and the 709th Static Divisions. The 7th Army Chief-of-Staff ordered Witt to first stabilize the current situation by preventing the Americans from expanding their lodgement and linking up with their paratroopers at Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and then to counterattack to take the town and smash the Americans on the beach. Reinforcements were on the way: the Seventh Army's Assault Battalion*, the 101st Heavy Nebelwerfer Regiment (equipped with forty-eight 280/320mm Nebelwerfer MRLs), and the 206th Panzer Replacement and Training Battalion (equipped with twenty Panzer 38H 735(f)s, ten Panzer 35S 739(f)s, six Panzer B2 740(f)s*, and two Panzer 35R 731(f)s). Unfortunately, there would be no major panzer reserves. OKW hadn't released any and they would be likely go to Caen first.

Witt's 12th SS Panzer Division Headquarters and the 12th SS Panzer Signals Battalion were arriving in the area, having used the woods to avoid the marauding Jabos. At last, Witt had a proper divisional staff and the communications equipment around him to run a proper battle. At about 1330, the rest of the 6th Fallschirmjager Regiment had assembled itself in Carentan.

The 6th Fallschirmjager Regiment consisted of three battalions. Each battalion was made up of three rifle companies, with each company armed with eighteen MG42s and three 74mm Granatwerfer 42 Medium Mortars*. In addition, each battalion had a heavy weapons company armed with twelve MG42s that were each mounted on a Lafette-42 Tripod, four 74mm Granatwerfer 42 Medium Mortars, and two 75mm LG40 L/15.5 Recoilless Guns. In addition to its three battalions, the regiment had three additional support companies. The 13th (Heavy Mortar) Company was armed with nine 105mm Nebelwerfer 35 Heavy Mortars* and eight MG42s. The 14th (Panzerjager/Anti-Tank) Company was armed four 75mm PaK 40 L/46 Anti-Tank Guns, thirty-four Panzerschrecks and six MG42s. The 15th (Pioneer) Company was armed with four Flammenwerfer 41 Flamethrowers, two 74mm Granatwerfer 42 Medium Mortars and six MG42s. The combined total strength of the 6th Fallschirmjager Regiment by May 1944 was 3,457 men. Later that month, the regiment was strengthened when its bicycle-mounted recon platoon was strengthened into a company and renamed the 16th (Reconnaissance) Company. This brought the regiment to a new total strength of 3,637 men. Said men were also of a higher quality compared with many of the other more standard units at the time. At least a third of the officers and a good portion of the NCOs were veterans who had fought at Crete, North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and the Eastern Front. The remainder of the men were all volunteers, with the average age across the regiment being seventeen-and-a-half. Morale was excellent and interestingly enough the whole regiment was jump-trained, with each man having done six daytime and three nighttime jumps. The only main weakness in the 6th Fallschirmjager Regiment was that it simply lacked any real transport capability. Each company (except for the 16th) in the regiment had an average of two trucks, and the seventy trucks across the whole unit were of fifty different makes-German, French, Italian and even British.

Witt immediately sent the regiment's 1st battalion to Saint-Come-du-Mont to relieve the 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion which was to rejoin his kampfgruppe. His repeated attempts to contact the rest of his division around Lisieux got him nowhere as he desperately need the rest of the 26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment, the 12th SS Panzerjager Battalion, and the 12th SS Panzer Pioneer Battalion as just as much he needed the support units which he couldn't fight much longer without them. Pemsel called him and informed that the rest of his division had been detached as 7th Army reserve. Witt would have to make do with what local reserves that the 84th Army Korps had already designated, and that was the dilemma. The commander of the 12th SS Panzer Division would have to crush the Americans at Sainte-Mere-Eglise before he could muster enough forces to strike the beachhead, which was at every minute trying to expand. Witt couldn't take too long or the beachhead would be too strong to break. The town had to fall quickly and it would have to be done under the cloak of night. Getting a grip on the German units in the area and coordinating a night attack at the same time presented even greater problems. If Witt had his complete division with him, it wouldn't be a problem because the 12th SS responded to his command like a well-trained team of spirited horses. But he only had a small part of it under his direct command and the rest of the team were assorted nags and plough horses.

Major-General Raymond Barton, commander of the U.S 4th Infantry Division, had come ashore soon after Roosevelt's fatal heart-attack. There had been no loss of control, but the situation was developing badly as he saw it. The 8th Infantry Regiment had been badly-handled while trying to get through the two southern beach exits over the flooded areas, and the remnants of both 1st Battalion/1058th Grenadier Regiment and 1st Battalion/919th Grenadier Regiment had fallen back to good defensive positions in the hedgerows around both Houdienville and Poupeville; two attacks out of Houdienville had been shot up by hidden MG42/MG34 nests, 81.4mm Granatwerfer 34 Medium Mortars and Panzerfaust 60M MPATRGs (Man-Portable-Anti-Tank-Recoilless-Guns). The 1st Battalion/8th Infantry with one tank company in support had managed to cross the beach exit at Saint-Martin-de-Varreville but had run into the strong 795th Georgian Battalion just outside of Turqueville. The 22nd Infantry Regiment had attacked with one of its battalions to the right of 1st Battalion/8th Infantry and had been stopped by strong German inland fortifications manned by 2nd Battalion/919th Grenadier Regiment around Foucarville, and another battalion moving along the coast was also stalled at a German resistance point at the southern edge of Hamel de Cruttes. There were also several understrength battalions of the U.S 101st Airborne Division who were fighting alongside with his battalions. Most of his tanks were bottled up around Houdienville. The 12th Infantry Regiment couldn't get ashore until later that day and the 359th Infantry Regiment would begin to come ashore the next morning. Barton was completely committed, with only one battalion of the 22nd Infantry Regiment in reserve, and completely stopped with nowhere near his D-Day objective line.

The bone rammed into the throat of German communications before dawn at Sainte-Mere-Eglise was about to be reinforced by Lieutenant-Colonel Benjamin Vandervoort's 2nd Battalion/505th PIR. By dawn, he had collected 575 of his 706 men, by far the best assembly record of any battalion in the 82nd Airborne Division that day. He then his battalion from a M3A4 Utility Hand Cart due to breaking his left ankle when he landed. Initially, Vandervoort had moved to block a German counterattack from the north of Sainte-Mere-Eglise down Highway 13. In a confusion of contradicting orders, he moved on to the town while leaving a platoon commanded by First-Lieutenant Turner Turnbull (who was half-Cherokee) near Neuville-au-Plain to the north of the town. It wasn't before long before a company from 2nd Battalion/1058th Grenadier Regiment showed up, singing as they marched down the road. A burst from the platoon's sole M1919A4 LMG caused them to hit the dirt. With the relentless aggressiveness of the German Heer (Army), the company began working its way around the platoon. Turnbull conducted a masterful defence as he kept the 2nd Battalion/1058th Grenadier Regiment at bay for two hours. Soon, the Germans brought in the nine Marder I Tank Destroyers of 1st Company/709th Panzerjager Battalion to finish the job. Knowing that he didn't had any anti-tank weapons with him and running low on ammo, Turnbull led what was left of his platoon through the narrow gap in the closing German ring. Turnbull had managed to hold off the German counterattack north of Sainte-Mere-Eglise long enough for the town to be thoroughly secured. Ridgway was to have more than enough to deal with from the south of the town along the Carentan road.

By dusk, the commander of the U.S 82nd Airborne Division had a strong and tight perimeter around Sainte-Mere-Eglise. He also had 2,310 men, mostly from the 505th PIR along with stragglers from both the 507th and 508th PIRs and the 101st Airborne Division. An hour later, they were joined by Baker Company of the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion and their sole Clark CA-1 Airborne Bulldozer that was brought in by glider. Ammunition was going to be a problem soon if they and the 4th Infantry Division didn't link up quickly. An American airborne division didn't carry much in the way of logistics into battle but depended upon a rapid closure by advancing ground forces. The paratroopers had improvised the lack of transportation by either using captured German vehicles or requisitioning horses and running mounted patrols through the town and the outlying countryside. Unknown to each other, both Ridgway and Witt were developing similar and complementing pictures of the current battle. Ridgway concluded that he would have to hold on until relieved, and that was as long as he held onto this key communications windpipe, the Germans couldn't get a deep enough breath to power a serious counterattack against the 4th Infantry Division. And that was his mission, to support the expansion of the lodgement by Barton's division. The longer he hold, the weaker the opposition that Barton would encounter. But Ridgway had only a fraction of his division under his command. He had one big ace up his sleeve, though. Forty-six Waco CG-4A Troop/Cargo Gliders carrying 220 troops, sixteen 57mm 6-Pounder Mark IV (Mark III Carriage) L/43 Anti-Tank Guns, twenty-two Willys MB Jeeps, and 2.1 tons of ammunition, food, fuel and medical supplies, and finally Ridgway's fourth regiment, the 325th Glider Infantry* (commanded by Colonel Harry Lewis) were due to land the next morning in the vicinity of the town.

Witt's plan was to attack about an hour after dusk fell on the long day, about 2030. He was about to be joined by the 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion as soon they had been relieved in place by 1st Battalion/6th Fallschirmjager Regiment. His kampfgruppe would be reinforced by 3rd Battalion/1058th Grenadier Regiment that was ordered up near Carentan so that the attack could go in from the south as well as southeast of Sainte-Mere-Eglise. The other half of Witt's nutcracker would be both 2nd Battalion/1058th Grenadier Regiment and the 709th Panzerjager Battalion attacking from the north. They had edged closer to the town after the lengthy delay caused by Turnbull and his gallant platoon. The 795th Georgian Battalion, who were holding to the east, would be enough. The minutes to the counterattack fell away, and still no sign of the 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion. Most of the men of 3rd Battalion/1058th Grenadier Regiment were in place. 2045...2050...2100...the sound of machine engines were carried throughout the night, but not quite the right pitch. They were aircraft engines. The moonlit sky quickly showed up a stream of forty-six Waco CG-4A Troop/Cargo Gliders were approaching the area between Les Forges and Fauville. Tracers reached up across the terrain as every German anti-aircraft weapon were searching for targets. The twenty-one SdKfz 251/17D Anti-Aircraft Half-Tracks of 3rd Battalion/26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment were joined by 88mm FlaK 36 L/56 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Guns and 20mm Flakvierling L/56 Autocannons from the 30th FlaK Regiment that was scattered all around the Cotentin Peninsula. Dozens of gliders were released right over them as some were splintered and broke apart, while others burst into flames as the tracers cooked off fuel or ammo. Those that survived the anti-aircraft fire snapped apart among Rommel's Asparagus that dotted the landing fields. Fire swept the downed gliders, setting more alight. The Germans would count thirty Waco CG-4A wrecks the next day. Now the SS-Panzergrenadiers rushed out to hunt those lucky enough to escape alive. The men that had ridden in on the gliders weren't combat units, but were the support elements for the beleaguered men at Sainte-Mere-Eglise. A few hid in the nearby woods and hedgerows while the rest were killed or captured. Ten out of the sixteen intact gliders that hadn't been destroyed gave up a treasure for the Germans in fuel, medical supplies, and food. The young SS-Panzergrenadiers were agog at such things like, canned peaches, chocolate bars and condensed milk in such quantity. Witt was more pleased with the ammunition and eleven out of the sixteen 6-Pounder Mark IV (Mark III Carriage) L/43 Anti-Tank Guns that he managed to capture.

Unknown to the  _SS-Brigadefuhrer_ , the remaining six gliders had managed to land north of the town at the same time. These were close enough to Sainte-Mere-Eglise for the paratroopers to rescue the crews and their cargos. The six 6-Pounder Mark IV (Mark III Carriage) L/43 Anti-Tank Guns and their crews, along with badly-needed M48 High-Explosive shells for the 75mm M1A1 L/18.4 Pack Howitzers, were the real prizes that night. Each one found a place in the defences as they were driven into the town behind the jeeps that had accompanied them. Small arms (M1911A1 Colt Pistol, M1A1 Carbine, M1 Garand, M1A1 Thompson SMG, and M1918A2 BAR) and MG (M1919A4 and M2HB) ammo was also thankfully replenished. Though the fate of the remaining gliders was being decided a few miles away, the Americans in Sainte-Mere-Eglise didn't notice it at all. By this time, the accumulated stress of the last thirty-six hours was taking its toll as men began to simply winding down. It had been Ridgeway's special brand of leadership that had been their mainspring so far. His perpetual drive, his habitual boring forward to the zone of personally-aimed fire, his inquiring mind and his persistent question to any of his subordinates: 'Do you know anything that will help me right now?' had wrung out of elite troops even more than could be expected. They were in place and ready around the town, but now even they ran down.

German bodies, even elite SS ones, also ran down as Witt was discovering about the same time. The destruction of the glider landing had used up and disorganized his kampfgruppe. Only about midnight did the 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion arrived from Saint-Come-du-Mont. Putting the 3rd Battalion/1058th Grenadier Regiment in the line, Witt pulled back his battered kampfgruppe for a rest.

While his men found the sleep that soldiers can snatch at will out of any time and place, the commander of the 12th SS Panzer Division stayed awake while fretting. Twice he had tried to move on Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and twice he had been prevented, first by the air attack and second by the unexpected glider landing. Time was Witt's worry. Would there be enough to break the American paratroopers in the town tomorrow before the forces moving inland could relieve them? Would those forces be too strong to dislodge by then if he took Sainte-Mere-Eglise? Witt's reinforcements were meagre, but where were the panzers reserves? A kampfgruppe like his could only stretch so far. Witt wasn't fully aware of the extent of the American lodgement on the Cotentin Peninsula, but what he knew was faintly encouraging. They were bottled up on the southern half of Utah Beach and had only pushed inland about four or five miles on a rather narrow front pointing towards Sainte-Mere-Eglise. The triangle formed by the town, his position to both the south and southeast, and the point of the American penetration inland was obviously the battle's geographic centre of gravity. It was there that SS-Kampfgruppe Witt would have to strike for the situation to fall their way.

Besides Witt and Ridgway, another general officer was also fretting about the same time over the same current situation. Major-General Joseph L. Collins, commander of the U.S 8th Corps, had just come ashore at Utah Beach with his staff. His appraisal of the situation would have brightened Witt's pessimism considerably. Collins was under no illusions. The U.S 5th Corps had been grimly sobered by the collapse of the U.S 1st Infantry Division on Omaha Beach, and Collins didn't think the U.S 29th Infantry Division would survive the next day. Utah was now the  _only_ American beachhead and had failed to meet any of his D-Day objectives. An SS-kampgruppe was still out there and that was a nasty surprise. Worst of all, at the moment, was the silence of the U.S 82nd Airborne Division at Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Except for the first signal announcing the capture of the town, no one had heard a thing from Ridgway's men. What was going on there?

Witt had one major worry that didn't afflict Collins. The U.S 8th Corps commander hadn't lost Montgomery after all. Rommel was still MIA. The radio traffic from Army Group B was becoming more hysterical. OB West's peace of mind wouldn't have been improved had it known that as D-Day was coming to a close that Hitler's star commander was a POW. That afternoon near Saint-Come-du-Mont as he worked his way towards Carentan, a huge form shot out of the bushes at Rommel and tackled him to the ground. The Desert Fox was looking up at the war-painted face of an American paratrooper from the U.S 101st Airborne Division's 506th PIR who was currently pressing an M2 Switchblade to his throat. Rommel's Walther P38 Pistol was torn out of its holster by another paratrooper. Together, the two of them hauled the Desert Fox to his feet and pushed him through a hole in the hedgerow to a small barn, where inside were a dozen more paratroopers who recognized Rommel instantly. What Allied soldier hadn't seen the Desert Fox's picture countless times? If Staff Sergeant Jack O'Connell had dragged Betty Grable through the barn door, there would've been more surprise, but not much. The platoon of fifteen men had not only so much a German POW as a celebrity on their hands. Second-Lieutenant Charles Eberly called his men to stand attention as he saluted. Rommel, with every inch of a  _Generalfeldmarschall_ (despite his bloody and torn uniform), returned the courtesy before offering his hand. The hardness of the older man's handshake broke through Eberly's rapt attention. The other men pushed forward to shake hands with the legendary Desert Fox. Canned fruits, candy bars and cigarettes (one that Rommel politely declined to) were pressed on him. Technician 5th Grade Eric Heintzelmann was translating as fast as his German boyhood could handle it. Eventually, Eberley remembered his official duties and asked for some ID and was duly impressed with Rommel's Solbuch (Paybook). Then he cleared his throat and asked Heintzelmann: 'Ask where the hell are we'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The majority of it fell into German hands.
> 
> *A half-track-mounted Panzergrenadier Company (both Heer and SS) had three SdKfz 251/17Ds in the FlaK/MG Squad and three more serving as a platoon commander's vehicle to replace the SdKfz 251/10D. The half-track-mounted Panzergrenadier Battalion (both Heer and SS) had twenty-one, with another in the regimental pioneer company and another seven in the regimental reconnaissance company.
> 
> *The Seventh Army's Assault Battalion was equipped with forty-four MG42s, two MG34s, six 81.4mm Granatwerfer 34 Medium Mortars, four 120mm Granatwerfer 42 Heavy Mortars, two 75mm leIG 18 L/11.2 Light Infantry Guns, ten Panzerbuche 39 Anti-Tank Rifles, two Flammenwerfer 41 Flamethrowers, four 20mm FlaK 38 L/65 Autocannons, two 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Guns, one 75mm PaK 40 L/46 Anti-Tank Gun, and four 100mm leFH 14/19(t) Light Field Howitzers.
> 
> *The Panzer B2 740(f) was the German designation for the Char B1 bis Medium Tank.
> 
> *The 74mm Granatwerfer 42 Medium Mortar was issued ONLY to Fallschirmjager units.
> 
> *After Normandy, all of the 105mm Nebelwerfer 35 Heavy Mortars in the Fallschirmjager units were replaced with the 120mm Granatwerfer 42 Heavy Mortars.
> 
> *Unlike the paratroopers, the glider infantry weren't volunteers-after early disasters and high casualties in Sicily, the U.S Army couldn't get enough volunteers for the glider infantry regiments. The paratroopers viewed themselves as the elite of the airborne divisions and looked down on the glider infantrymen since they weren't volunteers. Glider troops had to wear the standard M1941 Infantryman Uniform instead of the paratroopers' M1942 Airborne Uniform, along with being forbidden to wear the famous Corcoran jump boots, not getting the extra pay like the paratroopers, and not entitled to wear airborne wings. Eventually, this attitude changed and the paratroopers came to respect the glider troops as their equals.


	27. The British Landings, June 6th: German Forces on Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches

Defending the three beaches in the British/Canadian sector was the 716th Static Division (commanded by  _Generalleutnant_ Wilhelm Richter). Originally, it was activated under the command of  _Oberst_ Otto Matterstock on the 2nd of May 1941 from replacement units raised in the 6th Military District at Munster. Its soldiers were older men from both the Rhineland and Westphalia areas. The 716th was one of the fifteen static divisions raised in Mobilization Wave 15 at the beginning of April 1941, which was specifically organised for occupation and anti-invasion duties in the West and the Balkans. Once in place, a static division is left to establish itself. They had few motor vehicles of their own, for their transportation needs were few and what little mobility they had came from horse-drawn carts. The 716th was immediately sent to the area near Caen for coastal defence duties and after a brief spell in Soissons and later Belgium, the division returned once again to Normandy in June 1942 and remained there until D-Day.

Initially, the division consisted of the 726th (commanded by  _Oberst_ Walter Korfes) and 736th (commanded by  _Oberst_ Ludwig Krug) Grenadier Regiments, each with three battalions. As the anticipation of an Allied invasion grew, the 716th was reinforced by three Eastern battalions. The 439th Ost Battalion was attached to the 726th Grenadier Regiment and designated as 4th Battalion/726th Grenadier Regiment. The 642nd Ost Battalion was attached to the 736th Grenadier Regiment and designated as 4th Battalion/736th Grenadier Regiment. The 441st Ost Battalion guarded the majority of Gold Beach along with elements of 1st Battalion/726th Grenadier Regiment. Although the usefulness of the Eastern battalions was considered suspect, along with similar battalions placed in the line along the French coastline. An unnamed German general officer scathingly said that 'It is hard to imagine why Soviets should fight for the Germans, in France against the Americans'. Originally, the 716th's artillery support was by the 656th Artillery Battalion which contained three field artillery batteries, but this was later supplemented by the arrival of an additional artillery battalion and the division's artillery unit was upgraded and redesignated as the 1716th Artillery Regiment (commanded by  _Oberstleutnant_ Helmut Knuppe) with three battalions; the 1st had twelve 100mm leFH 14/19(t) Light Field Howitzers and four 155mm sFH 414(f) Heavy Field Howitzers, the 2nd had twelve leFH 14/19(t) Light Field Howitzers, and the third had eight leFH 14/19(t) Light Field Howitzers and four 155mm sFH 414(f) Heavy Field Howitzers. Six 149.1mm PzH Lorraine(f) SPGs were later added to the 1716th as 11th Battery/1716th Artillery Regiment. The 716th Panzerjager Battalion was equipped with ten Marder I Tank Destroyers, nine 75mm PaK 40 L/46 Anti-Tank Guns, two 88mm PaK 43/41 L/71 Anti-Tank Guns, nine 20mm FlaK 38 L/65 Autocannons, and six 75mm FlaK M.36(f) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Guns*.

It was inevitable that the division's static role on the Normandy coastline would be seen as a source of manpower to help make up the German losses on the Eastern Front, and many of its soldiers were drafted to the East were replaced by former Italian Bersaglieri and other low-quality troops from the occupied territories from Poland and the Soviet Union. Little by little, the 716th Static Division's strength and morale was diluted by the influx of foreign soldiers drafted in under the threat of service to the German Heer (except for the former Italian Bersaglieri) or brutal captivity in concentration camps.

In April 1943, Richter (a  _Generalmajor_ at the time) arrived to take over command of the 716th. His task was to improve the defences and secure the area against an Allied invasion, and his responsibility was to hold a front of over twenty-one miles of French coastline. It was a very demanding task, particularly when one considers that a good division could reasonably be expected to hold a front of only six miles. Richter complained that his forces were 'beaded along the coast like a string of pearls'. The 716th did, however, have some assistance to help stiffen its defensive role, which was sited as it was behind the much vaunted, but still incomplete, concrete emplacements and defences of the Atlantic Wall. Richter sent his men to help in the construction of the coastal defences and assisted in organizing over forty fortified centres of resistance in his sector.

In March 1944, the 352nd Infantry Division was ordered to take over the defences in the Bayeux sector of the Normandy beaches as part of Rommel's efforts to strengthen the defences in that sector. The 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 726th Grenadier Regiment who were guarding the future Omaha Beach sector were subordinated to the 352nd Infantry Division's headquarters, along with the 439th Ost Battalion, 3rd Battalion/1716th Artillery Regiment, and 2nd Company/716th Pioneer Battalion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The FlaK M.36(f) was the German designation for the French Canon de 75mm contre aeronefs mle 36 L/53 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Gun.


	28. The British Landings, June 6th: Sword Beach, 0725

The Germans took the first honours in the struggle for Sword Beach. The British invasion fleet arrived off the coast during the night. Just before daybreak, aircraft laid a heavy smokescreen between the ships and both the four 155mm K418(f) Heavy Field Guns of 2nd Battery/266th Naval Artillery Battalion and the four 172.5mm K 18 in MrsLaf L/47 Heavy Field Guns of 3rd Battery/1254th Army Coastal Artillery Regiment at Le Harve. Out of the morning's halflight, thickened with smoke, the  _Jaguar_ emerged to launch a spray of four 500mm G7a(TI) Torpedos before disappearing back into the haze. Both HMS  _Warspite_ (a  _Queen Elizabeth_ -Class Battleship) and HMS  _Ramillies_ (a  _Revenge_ -Class Battleship) were able to turn barely in time. Unfortunately, the HNoMS  _Svenner_ (an  _S_ -Class Destroyer) wasn't so lucky as she was struck in the boiler and sank by the stern with the loss of 33 out of her 219-man crew*.

The German attack failed to affect the timing for the landings. The British, who were more patient than the Americans, had insisted on a full two hours of preliminary naval bombardment. The big guns of two battleships, four light cruisers, one heavy cruiser, one monitor and thirteen destroyers provided the heaviest concentration of firepower against any of the five invasion beaches that day on a strip three miles long and one-and-a-half deep. All this was preparing the British 3rd Infantry Division (commanded by Major-General Ian MacDonald)'s assault which would be lead by the 8th Infantry Brigade (commanded by Brigadier-General E.E. Cass) with a two-battalion front, followed by the 9th Infantry Brigade (commanded by Brigadier-General J.O. Cunningham), the 27th Armoured Brigade (commanded by Brigadier-General George Prior-Palmer), and the 185th Infantry Brigade (commanded by Brigadier-General K.P. Smith). Coming in on the right of the 3rd Infantry Division forty minutes later by the 1st Special Service Brigade, which contained No. 3 Commando, No. 4 Commando, No. 6 Commando, No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando, No. 45 (Royal Marine) Commando, No. 1 French Troop and No. 8 French Troop, under the command of Brigadier-General Lord Lovat*. (The 1st SS Brigade's patch showing a double-letter 'S' was to arouse such hostility from the French population on it that it was quickly changed.)

As the flotillas of landing craft began forming for the assault, the misty weather punctuated with occasional showers 'lent a rather chilly and sinister atmosphere'. An officer of C Squadron of the 13th/18th Royal Hussars was watching and recalled:

'...the infantry assault troops were being loaded into their LCAs and LCI(S)s*, which were alongside and ready to take them to the enemy-held shore. We had often seen the infantry do this before, but this was to be the last time-this was the real thing. I certainly felt sorry for them as many of them looked very seasick and knew they would be wet before long. But as always, they were trying to be cheerful. One couldn't help but wonder how many would be alive by evening, and how many would see England again. I think at this moment we were all glad to be in a tank and could at least be dry, and it gave one a feeling of security as distinct from nakedness. Although we found out later that this feeling often turned out to be a false one'.

The assault hit the beach right on schedule at 0745. Forty Sherman II* DDs of the 13th/18th Royal Hussars from the 27th Armoured Brigade were released 5,000 yards from shore. They were the lancehead of the attack on Sword Beach, meant to break open the crust for the following infantry. It was a tradition, as recalled by Sergeant Howard Clewlow:

'DD tanks were compulsory. The one I was in did the charge of the Light Brigade and that was it, the charge of the Light Brigade came all again-officers with big mustaches and they all thought they were charging at Balaclava...

The real panic came when the other stuff started to back up on us. We were supposed to be ahead of it, but we were going that slow that the other stuff was catching up on us. If we got too close, the LCAs and LCI(S)s would just ploughed into you and sunk you. They didn't worry as their idea was to get to the shore as we could and if you were in the way, that was just your hard luck. Being outside the tank instead of being inside one, we could see these landing craft coming closer and the stuff was going over the warships. The RAF was flying about 500-feet. You don't know what to do and you were seasick and you also got all of this gear on. Most people would ask if you were panicky, and there was that much confusion on you that haven't got time to feel frightened'.

Clewlow's fears were realized when landing craft hit two of the Sherman II DDs and sank them like stones. Two more sank in the rough water, but eighteen survived to clank up onto the beach. Inside one of the Sherman II DDs was Lance-Corporal P.L.M. Hennessey, who recalled:

'On the beach, we dropped our canvas-screen and opened fire. The tide was coming in and the water where we were at was getting deeper. We couldn't move inland because the anti-tank mine hadn't been cleared yet. Then, a large wave swamped the engine, causing the tank to become immobilized and began to flood. We took to the rubber dinghy, but MG fire punctured it and we sank, obliging us to swim for the shore which was now 300 yards away. Halfway there, I clung to a wooden post sticking out of the water and glanced up to see a large black Tellermine 43 Anti-Tank Mine attached to the top of said post-I swam on'.

As the Sherman II DDs swam ashore, four LCT(6)s landed another sixteen. Right behind them were another LCT(6)s carrying Hobart's 'Funnies' of both the 22nd Dragoons and the Westminster Dragoons with attached sapper groups to begin destroying the beach obstacles. The sappers who ran ashore to precede the specialized armored vehicles were magnets for enemy fire. Second-Lieutenant Charles Mundy of C Squadron/22nd Dragoons watched from inside his Sherman II Crab Flail Tank and recalled:

'They were flung about as German MG34/MG42 fire hit them, causing them to either clutch at various parts of their bodies or jolting them like ragdolls and then sinking out of sight into the water...Even those who were slightly-wounded were dragged under by their own equipment'.

Major Tim Wheway, Mundy's CO, was also in the thick of the fight and recalled:

'We land at 0725 and the impact nearly shoots the tanks through the doors. The flails stream out in 3-feet of water followed by the AVRE Mark IVs*. We were met by artillery shelling, mortars, 88mm, 75mm and 50mm anti-tank shells, and small arms fire at 300 yards. The command tank with our CO, Colonel Cox, was hit. The leading flail tank on the landing craft manages to get off, but Corporal Brotherton is KIA and the crew in the second flail tank is wounded, also Colonel Cox has been KIA. Several tanks are hit as the landing craft doors go down. Mines are sighted on top of the wooden beach obstacles as we go as far as possible in the water to get into effective hull-down positions and then open fire on concrete gun emplacements, reinforced houses and dug-in infantry. Tanks are brewing up left and right as we then proceeded to flail our gaps, but no mines were encountered. So, we speed up and got within 50 yards of our gapping places and fire right into the slots of the concrete gun emplacements'.

The German gunners in both WN20*(manned by 10th Company/736th Grenadier Regiment) and WN21*(also manned by 10th Company/736th Grenadier Regiment) didn't give an inch. The two 50mm KwK 38 L/42 Cannons in WN21 blew the flail arms off First-Lieutenant Robertson's Sherman II Crab, while the single 88mm PaK 43/41 L/71 Anti-Tank Gun in WN20 pumped three APCR (Armor-Piercing-Composite-Rigid) rounds through the turret of Second-Lieutenant Allen's Sherman II DD and three more through the engine of Corporal Agnew's, brewing it up; and punched a hole through the frontal armour of Sergeant Cochran's AVRE Mark IV, killing the driver and wounding two more, but the British were relentless. The Sherman II Crabs with their flails braved the fire to sweep lanes for the infantry behind them. The AVRE Mark IVs carrying SBGBs (Small Box Girder Bridges) moved up to bridge the anti-tank ditches. The Small Box Girder Bridges were dropped, but most of the crews were wiped out as they dismounted to secure said bridges and their tanks were left burning. A wild minor German counterattack rushed out of the reinforced houses behind the beach and was thrown back, leaving dead Germans to mingle with the British. But the British were stopped for the moment. Finally, more Sherman II Crabs had landed on the beach and were thrown into the breach. German snipers took their toll on commanders, but said Germans were spent. The British wouldn't let go, and the German resistance snapped.

Behind the DD tanks and 'Funnies' were the first British infantry units to come ashore: two companies each from the 1st South Lancashire and the 2nd East Yorkshire Battalions. MG34/MG42 fire felled them in windrows as they moved over the beach, but they kept moving to pitch themselves into the fight, carried by the Sherman II DDs into the teeth of WN20. Most of the two-hundred East Yorks fell dead or wounded in those few minutes as did most of the South Lanes' casualties. Major Wheway would count sixty-seven casualties and ten tanks destroyed, but he and his unit had destroyed two 50mm KwK 38 L/42 Cannons, three 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Guns, one 75mm PaK 40 L/46 Anti-Tank Gun and one 88mm PaK 43/41 Anti-Tank Gun. After three intense hours, the German grip on Sword Beach was broken. By 0930, the tanks and infantry had broken through the dune defenses and captured the village of Hermanville-la-Breche after a short but intense fight with WN18*(also manned by 10th Company/736th Grenadier Regiment). About this time, Richter committed his last reserve into a counterattack: 3rd Battalion/736th Grenadier Regiment and the remaining five 149.1mm PzH Lorraine(f) SPGs of 11th Battery/1716th Artillery Regiment. The middle-aged German infantrymen and gunners moved down the gentle slope to the beach while being strafed by Typhoons and ran straight into strong small arms fire and tank fire. Incredibly, they reached the western end of Sword Beach at Lion-sur-Mer, only to be overwhelmed by British firepower. The five SPGs retreated to their original position with only twenty surviving infantrymen of 3rd Battalion/736th Grenadier Regiment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Sonnenburg was later awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for sinking the Norwegian destroyer.
> 
> *His birth name is Simon Fraser.
> 
> *Landing Craft Infantry (Small).
> 
> *The Sherman II is the British designation for the M4A1 Sherman.
> 
> *The AVRE (Assault Vehicle Royal Engineers) was either a Churchill Mark III or IV with the main gun swapped out for a 290mm Mark I or II Petard Mortar that was capable of demolishing any reinforced position in short order.
> 
> *WN20 major weapons (bunker type): an 88mm PaK 43/41 L/71 Anti-Tank Gun in a H677 Gun Casemate, and three 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Guns in open gun pits.
> 
> *WN21 major weapons (bunker type): two Vf600 Gun Pits and a 75mm PaK 40 L/46 Anti-Tank Gun in a open gun pit.
> 
> *WN18 major weapons (bunker type): an 88mm PaK 43/41 L/71 Anti-Tank Gun in a H677 Gun Casemate, two 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Guns in H677 Gun Casemates, and one Vf600 Gun Pit.


	29. The British Landings, June 6th: Piper of Sword Beach

At 0820, while the fighting at WN20 was still raging on, Lord Lovat's 1st Special Service Brigade had landed, having lost three landing craft to enemy fire, just to the east of the tanks and the 8th Infantry Brigade. Private Bill Millin was at Lord Lovat's side and recalled:

'Lovat got into the water first...I followed closely behind him...he's a man about 6-feet tall and, of course, the water came up to his knees...I thought it would be alright for me, so I jumped into the water and it came up to my waist...Anyway, I managed to struggle forward and then started to play  _Highland Laddie_ on my bagpipes towards the beach which was very much under enemy fire. At that time, there were...three...burning tanks...bodies laying at the water's edge, face-down while floating back and forth. Some men were frantically digging in while others were crouching behind a low seawall. No one could get off the beach. I made for the cover at an exit and I just got behind a group of soldiers who had been cut down...about nine or twelve of them...they're shouting and seeing me wearing my kilt and the bagpipes as I looked around and to my horror...I saw this tank coming off a nearby landing craft with the flails going and making straight for this road. I tried to catch the tank commander's attention...his head was sticking out of the turret...before he was decapitated by an anti-tank shell'.

Amid the carnage, Millin saw Lovat and his XO standing up in full view. He joined them and Lovat asked him to play. Overcoming his sense of the ridiculous, the young Private marched up and down Sword Beach while adding the screech of his bagpipes to the sound of the battle. He was interrupted by a Sergeant who shouted: 'Get down, you bloody mad bastard! You're attracting attention to us'.

But Millin was by now in the grand spirit of the moment and continued to serenade both sides until the commandos moved off the beach. You really had to be there to see it.

The commandos raced across the beach past the heaps of the dead left by the 2nd East Yorkshire Battalion from the water's edge to the end of Sword Beach. No. 4 Commando (commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Robert W.P. Dawson), and No. 1 French Troop and No. 8 French Troop* (both troops were under the command of  _Capitaine de fregate_ (Commander) Philippe Kieffer) peeled off and attacked into the port town of Ouistreham on the eastern edge of Sword Beach. Their objective was to take out both WN14 (which housed the HQ of 1st Battalion/736th Grenadier Regiment) and WN12, which housed the four 155mm sFH 414(f) Heavy Field Howitzers of 4th Battery/1716th Artillery Regiment in H669 Gun Casemates around the casino (with two 20mm FlaK 38 L/65 Autocannons in support), and were shooting up the British forces that were fighting off the beach. On the road to the town, a French gendarme (military police) ran out to meet them with detailed information on the current German positions. The French led the attack that overwhelmed both the battery and the battalion HQ with heavy casualties on both sides. The destruction of the German battery at Ouistreham considerably assisted the 3rd Infantry Division's fight to break WN20.

As Kieffer was attacking Ouistreham, Lord Lovat had moved quickly with the rest of his brigade with No. 6 Commando* in the lead, outflanking the German defenses to sieze the village of Colleville-Montgomery. He was marching to a more urgent tune than anything played by Private Millin. Lovat's mission was to reinforce the British 6th Airborne Division holding Pegasus Bridge at Benouville. Lovat had promised Gale that he would be there 'sharp at noon', with the recognition signal being the sound of a piper playing  _Blue Bonnets over the Border_. Lovat was about to lose his bet as he and his men crossed the bridge at 1230 with Millin playing his bagpipes beside him. The 6th Airborne had been relieved and nobody was complaining about the bet.

The commandos filed across Pegasus Bridge under small arms and mortar fire to add to the strength of the beachhead to the east of the Orne River. They were just in time to reinforce the British paratroopers when the Germans were preparing for their first serious counterattack. Both  _Major_ von Luck's 125th Panzergrenadier Regiment and  _Major_ Becker's 200th Assault Gun Battalion had been reinforced by 1st Battalion/155th Panzer Artillery Regiment (equipped with eight 122mm sFH 396(r) Field Howitzers* and four 105mm leFH 18/40 L/31 Light Field Howitzers), 10th (Nebelwerfer) Battery/155th Panzer Artillery Regiment, 4th Company/22nd Panzer Regiment, 1st Company/220th Panzer Pioneer Battalion, and the 21st Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion in preparation to strike through to Ranville and Pegasus and Horsa Bridges via the route from Escoville to Herouvillette.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *These were members of the 1er Bataillon de Fusiliers Marins Commandos of the Free French Navy who served in No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando before being attached to No. 4 Commando.
> 
> *Interestingly, during their time in Algeria, the men of No. 6 Commando had been given M1 Garands by American troops, and had decided not to give them back as expected of them.
> 
> *The sFH 396(r) was the German designation for the Soviet 122mm M1938 (M-30) L/23 Field Howitzer.


	30. The British Landings, June 6th: 21st Panzer Division stirs

_Generalleutnant_ Edgar Feuchtinger, commander of the 21st Panzer Division, was in that half-sleep after intercourse in the early morning hours before dawn. The scent from his French girlfriend's long black hair on the pillow next to him was a dreamy delight. He was suddenly jarred awake from his reverie when the phone rang. It was Listug, his adjutant, the  _only_ one who he had entrusted with his actual 'whereabouts'. Officially, he had been inspecting the conversion of more old French tanks into assault guns for his division. 'Herr General, Listug here. You must return to HQ immediately. Something serious is up'. In Feuchtinger's absence,  _Oberstleutnant_ Wolf-Gotz Freiherr von Berlichingen-Jagsthausen, the 21st Panzer Division's Chief-of-Staff and senior officer present, had ordered the divisional HQ to displace forward from Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives, 18 miles southeast of Caen, to its operational location closer to the city. Feuchtinger had arrived there shortly after 0600 and soon had a good idea of the situation of the British 6th Airborne Division's positions in Ranville and the Bois de Bavent Forest. He immediately called Army Group B for permission to counterattack, but was informed that what they had seen were straw parachute dummies, merely a diversionary manoeuvre. Barely controlling his voice, Feuchtinger informed them that von Luck's 125th Panzergrenadier Regiment had captured a medical officer who had landed astray from his unit. Under polite questioning, said officer had revealed much of the 6th Airborne Division's mission. The 716th Static Division had reported strong attacks by British airborne forces all along the lower Orne River. Feuchtinger also added his own observations to Speidel on the phone: 'Speidel, I have just came back from Paris and I've seen a gigantic armada off the west coast of Cabourg, warships, transport ships, and landing craft. I want to attack at once with my entire division east of the Orne River in order to push through to the coast'. It was refused.

Every few minutes, he would walk to the door and stare out into the glowing light past the red, black and white HQ sign, almost as if he could hear the fighting that was reported to the northwest. The 716th had been fighting all night, while his panzer division stood still, its feet nailed to the ground due to lack of orders. For that matter, Feuchtinger wasn't even sure who was in a position to issue him orders. For such an orderly army, his chain-of-command was a staff officer's dream, a compromise that satisfied everything except this present banging emergency. He was technically subordinated to the 716th Static Division now in battle. Richter had ordered him to immediately attack the British paratroopers, but Feuchtinger's standing orders were not to move until ordered to by Army Group B.

Enough was enough. It was 0630. 'Wolf!' he shouted. His Chief-of-Staff rushed up to him. 'We move, now. The 22nd Panzer Regiment is to attack the British bridgeheads on the Orne River. Pass the order and move out'. The headquarters came apart as men packed up their equipment before flying to their vehicles. On the road to Caen, Feuchtinger decided to split his division up into four kampfgruppes:

  * **Kampfgruppe von Luck**
  * 125th Panzergrenadier Regiment
  * 1st Battalion/155th Panzer Artillery Regiment (eight 122mm sFH 396(r) Field Howitzers and four 105mm leFH 18/40 L/31 Light Field Howitzers)
  * 10th (Nebelwerfer) Battery/155th Panzer Artillery Regiment (six S303(f) Raketen-Vielfachwerfers*)
  * 4th Company/22nd Panzer Regiment (seventeen Panzer IVG Tanks*)
  * 21st Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion
  * 200th Assault Gun Battalion (fifteen 75mm PzH 39H(f) Tank Destroyers, thirty 105mm PzH 39H(f) SPGs, and six U304(f) FlaK Half-Tracks)
  * 1st Company/220th Panzer Pioneer Battalion



 

  * **Kampfgruppe Rauch**
  * 192nd Panzergrenadier Regiment
  * 220th Panzer Pioneer Battalion (minus 1st Company)
  * 2nd Battalion/155th Panzer Artillery Regiment (twelve 105mm PzH Lorraine(f) SPGs* and six 149.1mm PzH Lorraine(f) SPGs)



 

  * **Kampfgruppe Oppeln-Bronikowski**
  * 22nd Panzer Regiment*(seventy-six Panzer IVG Tanks, six Panzer IVC Tanks*, thirty-two Panzer 35S 739(f) Tanks, and twelve Flakpanzer 38(t)s*)
  * 200th Field Replacement Battalion
  * 200th Panzerjager Battalion (twenty-four 88mm PaK 43/41 L/71 Anti-Tank Guns)
  * 305th Army FlaK Battalion (eight 88mm FlaK 36 L/56 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Guns, nine SdKfz 7/2 Anti-Aircraft Half-Tracks, six U304(f) FlaK Half-Tracks, and two SdKfz 7/1 Anti-Aircraft Half-Tracks)
  * 3rd Battalion/155th Panzer Artillery Regiment (twelve 105mm PzH Lorraine(f) SPGs and six 149.1mm PzH Lorraine(f) SPGs)



 

  * **Kampfgruppe Feuchtinger**
  * HQ/21st Panzer Division
  * HQ/155th Panzer Artillery Regiment
  * 200th Panzer Signals Battalion
  * 200th Panzer Versorgungstruppen*



By 0800, they were already halfway to Caen when two things happened. The RAF strafed the column, destroying two Tatra T57K Light Passenger Cars and Feuchtinger's Krupp L3H163/Kfz.72 Heavy Radio Truck. When it was all clear, they assembled and started off again when Feuchtinger was handed a message slip by his Chief-of-Staff, telling him his division was now under the command of the 7th Army.

He had problems enough without the chain-of-command as he was rushing into the counterattack with a green division against an elite enemy force. The 21st Panzer Division had been one of Rommel's rapiers in the North Africa Campaign, but all the men had surrendered in Tunisia of May 1943. The original members of the division were those who had been recuperating from wounds in Germany at the time. Starting with 3,000 men in July of 1943, the division was rebuilt. Most of its men were inexperienced, but at least it had ninety-three Panzer IVGs, six Panzer IVCs, and thirty-two Panzer 35S 739(f)s in its 22nd Panzer Regiment (commanded by  _Oberst_ Hermann von Oppeln-Bronikowski).

This would be the 21st Panzer's first action as a new division. By 0900, Kampfgruppe Oppeln-Bronikowski was on the road to Caen along with Kampfgruppe Feuchtinger. Also at 0900, Feuchtinger received another message slip (this time from his 200th Panzer Signals Battalion due to his HQ's heavy radio truck having been destroyed), informing him that he was subordinate to the 84th Army Korps and that he was to detach Kampfgruppe Rauch, and both his 200th Panzerjager and 305th Army FlaK Battalions to flesh out the understrength defences around Caen. An hour later, just when he was about to commit Kampfgruppe Opplen-Bronikowski to support Kampfgruppe von Luck, Feuchtinger was ordered to break off the attack and retrace his steps, crossing the Orne River at Caen to meet the enemy coming south. He turned the counterattack on the British paratroopers over to von Luck. Harried all the way back to Caen, Feuchtinger's kampfgruppe lost half-a-dozen soft-skinned vehicles. As it was, the 21st Panzer Division took hours to pass through the rubble-choked streets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The S303(f) Raketen-Vielfachwerfer is an armored Somua MCL Half-Track armed with a launcher that fired twenty-four 82mm BM-8 High-Explosive Rockets that were captured on the Eastern Front.
> 
> *The late Panzer IVG had the same 80mm frontal armour (bolted-on) and fitted with armour side skirts, but was armed with the slightly-weaker 75mm KwK 40 L/43 Cannon.
> 
> *The 105mm PzH Lorraine(f) was built around the base of the Lorraine 37L Tracked Carrier and mounted the 105mm leFH 18/40 L/31 Light Field Howitzer.
> 
> *The 22nd Panzer Regiment’s 4th Company had been detached to support Kampfgruppe von Luck.
> 
> *The Panzer IVC was built as an infantry support tank armed with a 75mm KwK 37 L/24 Cannon and 30mm frontal armour.
> 
> *The Flakpanzer 38(t) or Gepard is based on a modified Panzer 38(t) chassis and mounted a 20mm FlaK 38 L/65 Autocannon. They were used in the Flakpanzer platoons in the panzer regiments.
> 
> The Versorgungstruppen in a Heer panzer division included: a divisional Administrative Platoon, a Butcher Company, a Bakery Company, a Field Post Office, a Military Police Company, two Medical Companies, an Ambulance Company, eleven Motor Transport Companies, a Supply Company, a Weapons Repair Company, and Vehicle Park Troops (containing two Workshop Companies, a Heavy Motor Repair Company, and a Supply Column for Spare Parts).


	31. The British Landings, June 6th: 3rd Infantry Division strikes inland

As the 21st Panzer Division was heading back towards Caen, the 185th Infantry Brigade had come safely ashore and assembled near Hermanville-la-Breche, ready to embark on its primary mission: the seizure of Caen, which was the British 3rd Infantry Division's final and critical objective. They were awaiting for the tanks of the 27th Armoured Brigade's Staffordshire Yeomanry*, which would give them the punch and speed to shoot through to Caen with the 2nd King's Shropshire Light Infantry Battalion mounted aboard. Both the 1st Royal Norfolk and 2nd Royal Warwickshire Battalions would follow in their wake to mop up any resistance on either flank. But the Sherman V Tanks* were nowhere to be seen. They were stuck on Sword Beach with the rest of the incoming traffic. It took an hour for them just to reach the road behind the beach and then inch along it unable to go off-road because of the German minefield on either side. Lieutenant-Colonel F.J. Maurice, commander of the 2nd King's Own Shropshire, bicycled back down to the beach to find out what was wrong and reported back to Smith, who then ordered his brigade forward, tanks or no tanks.

Ahead of the 185th, the 8th Infantry Brigade had been busy reducing WN16*(which the four 100mm leFH 14/19(t) Light Field Howitzers of 2nd Battery/1716th Artillery Regiment were housed in H669 Gun Casemates). The 1st Suffolk Battalion took it after a short but intense bombardment, which convinced its 65-man garrison to surrender. The next one, WN17*(which housed the HQ of the 736th Grenadier Regiment) was even easier and was taken by the Suffolks on the bounce. It was practically empty, except for the 736th's CO,  _Oberst_ Ludwig Krug, his staff and a few MG42 crews. Its strength and size caught the Suffolks up short when they searched it after taking Krug and his staff prisoner. For once, Allied intelligence had failed to accurately gauge the strength of a position.

'Had it been properly defended, it would've held up the entire operation and the 3rd Infantry Division would have never gotten as far as it did that day', said the commander of the 8th Infantry Brigade, Brigadier-General E.E. Cass.

As the 185th Infantry Brigade marched past WN17, the Sherman Vs of the Staffordshire Yeomanry's leading squadron caught up with them.

Maurice waved to the captain in the lead tank and said: 'I never thought you would make it this fast'.

'Yes, sir, and neither did we. That new GOC (General Officer Commanding), MacDonald, came by and ordered us to push everything else off the road ahead of us. The rest of our lot should follow soon', replied the captain.

The man's enthusiasm lifted a load off from Maurice's mind. He had worried over how the division would be handled ever since Major-General Thomas Rennie had broken his hip in an air crash ten days ago. Rennie had been tough like a bulldog and his last-minute replacement had been something of a question to his subordinate commanders, but not anymore. Now married up to at least part of their tanks, the Shropshires moved quickly down the road towards Caen as planned.

Shortly after midday, the 9th Infantry Brigade (made up of the 2nd Lincolnshire, the 1st King's Own Scottish Borderers, and the 2nd Royal Ulster Rifles Battalions) had been successfully landed. Brigadier-General J.O. Cunningham quickly found the next two links in his chain-of-command: Major-General Ian MacDonald, commander of the British 3rd Infantry Division, and Lieutenant-General John Crocker, commander of the British 1st Corps, in Hermanville-la-Breche.

'I never seen anything like this. I've been in half-a-dozen campaigns, but never before have I been beaten onto the battlefield not only by my Division Commander, but my Corps Commander!' exclaimed Cunningham.

They both laughed; then Crocker explained the current situation on a map that was resting on a broken wall: 'You see how the 185th Infantry Brigade has moved out smartly towards Caen. You'll follow with your 9th Infantry Brigade as planned and strike west of the city to capture Carpiquet Airfield. No change in plan. You had a close call, you know. A panzer attack was forming up on the 6th Airborne Division holding on to the bridges over the Orne River and the Caen Canal, and we originally planned to divert you that way. But the panzers seem to have been withdrawn. Now it appears that both you and Smith have a clear shot at Caen. There aren't any heavy forces in the way'.

'Also, I'm giving you a squadron from the 13th/18th Royal Hussars to speed you onto your objective. They should be available soon and they are that's left of the regiment. Resistance on the beach was about what we expected', added MacDonald.

Brigadier-General Smith was to write after the war: 'What I didn't expect on my race for Caen was to confront the 21st Panzer Division or any other German armoured units...Information concerning the strength and dispositions of the 716th Static Division was somewhat nebulous and what with the speed of my advance and with the expected support from both the tanks of the Staffordshire Yeomanry and the twenty-four 105mm M3 L/17.9 Light Howitzers of the 7th Field Artillery Battalion, Royal Artillery, I didn't expect much opposition'.

The mobile group first began proving him wrong when it ran into strong resistance on Peries Ridge from three 88mm PaK 43/41 L/71 Anti-Tank Guns of the 21st Panzer and a few supporting infantry from the 716th. They broke through at a cost of nine Sherman Vs left blazing and moved on to the village of Bieville-Beuville, located almost three miles south of WN17. Luckily, the other twenty-one PaK 43/41s of the 21st Panzer Division's 200th Panzerjager Battalion had been scattered throughout the sector. The mobile group's first attack on Bieville-Beuville was thrown back with a vengeance. The village was being strongly-held by a company from 2nd Battalion/192nd Panzergrenadier Regiment. Maurice was surprised to find out from the POWs that they were the intended garrison of WN17 that had arrived too late to take their positions.

Supported by the Staffordshire Yeomanry, the 2nd King's Own Shropshire Light Infantry Battalion fought through the village while taking a number of unnecessary casualties rather than destroy houses where the French population were cowering in.

Captain Robert Rylands discovered one of the horrible necessities of war as he recalled: 'The civilians refused to evacuate themselves, and at that early stage, we were too soft-hearted to shell their homes-a proceeding which might have facilitated our advance considerably'.

The fight for Bieville-Beuville took until late afternoon when the last German Panzergrenadiers surrendered. Maurice had lost 113 men and three more Sherman Vs, and it was almost 1600 in the afternoon. By then, the 1st Royal Norfolk Battalion came charging down the road mounted on the backs of the Sherman Vs of the Staffordshire Yeomanry. Smith jumped off the lead tank and shook Maurice's hand as he said: 'Well done, Shropshires!'

'I've lost over a 113 good men, sir', replied Maurice.

'Yes, of course, Maurice... since the Norfolks are fresh and mounted, I want them to lead the way into Caen', said the commander of the 185th Infantry Brigade.

'I suggest you take a look at Lebisey from here', said Maurice. They then climbed up a half-ruined bell tower as the commander of the 2nd King's Own Shropshire Light Infantry Battalion then pointed south and said: 'Brigadier, you can even see the activity and hear the noise of German tanks between the woods and Caen. There's more there than we had expected'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Also known as the Queen's Own Royal Regiment.
> 
> *The Sherman V is the British designation for the Lend-Lease M4A4 Sherman.
> 
> *Codenamed 'Morris' by the British.
> 
> *Codenamed 'Hillman' by the British.


	32. The British Landings, June 6th: The German Counterstroke

_General der Artillerie_ Erich Marcks, commander of the 84th Army Korps, joined Feuchtinger's kampfgruppe as it emerged from Caen's northern suburbs. 'Feuchtinger, throw in everything that you have. Now isn't the time to hold back. Your panzers will need infantry support. I'm giving you back the 192nd Panzergrenadier Regiment that is in defence of Caen along with the 220th Panzer Pioneer Battalion'. Marcks then turned to the commander of the 22nd Panzer Regiment,  _Oberst_ Hermann von Opplen-Bronikowski. 'Herr  _Oberst_ , if you don't succeed in throwing the British back into the sea, we shall lose the war'. And with that, the former German equestrian who won the Gold Medal in the 1936 Olympic Games saluted and leaped into his command tank. The 22nd Panzer Regiment and 3rd Battalion/155th Panzer Artillery Regiment, a force of seventy-six Panzer IVGs, six Panzer IVCs, thirty-two Panzer 35S 739(f)s, twelve Flakpanzer 38(t)s, twelve 105mm PzH Lorraine(f) SPGs and six 149.1mm PzH Lorraine(f) SPGs, basically a force of 144 armored vehicles, drove north through Lebisey Woods where the men of the 192nd Panzergrenadier Regiment (commanded by  _Oberst_ Josef Rauch) left their positions and joined the column in their U304(f) Half-Track variants. It was 1630 in the afternoon as the first German armoured counterattack of the battle began. Feuchtinger left his 200th Field Replacement and 200th Panzer Signals Battalions, and the 200th Panzer Versorgungstruppen in Caen.

Von Opplen-Bronikowski attacked north in two balanced columns. The right-hand column drove towards Bieville-Beuville and Ouistreham, while the other towards Lion-sur-Mer. Each column had one panzer and one panzergrenadier battalion. The panzer regiment's flakpanzer platoon and the artillery battalion brought up the rear as reserve. The British now couldn't have missed the approach of the 21st Panzer Division, and were waiting for them after Maurice's warning. The right-hand's column's Panzer IVC/Gs and Panzer 35S 739(f)s began exploding as they were struck by 17-Pounder Mark IV L/55 Anti-Tank Guns of Lieutenant-Colonel J.A. Eadie's Staffordshire Yeomanry's Sherman VC Fireflys. This was something Eddy had clearly thought out long before the invasion as he recalled: 'I know what the German panzers will do. They will drive their command tanks onto an eminence, effectively out of range of my 6-Pounders (about 1,000 yards), make a quick plan before getting back into their tanks before any effective field artillery concentrations could be brought to bear, and withdraw behind the ridge. They will form up their companies, give out their orders and then drive straight for their objectives. What they don't know is that I have three troops of Fireflys'.

It worked perfectly, but he was wrong in only one particular: Eadie had fifty-seven Sherman Vs on the line instead of just his three troops of Sherman VC Fireflys. In a few minutes, all thirty-two Panzer 35S 739(f)s, fifteen Panzer IVGs and a number of U304(f) Half-Track variants were burning. Among them was the command tank of  _Major_ Martin Vierzig, commander of 2nd Battalion/22nd Panzer Regiment. Opplen-Bronikowski turned his regiment west, away from the deadly fire and towards the gap that  _every_ panzer commander lusts for: the enemy's open flank. He lead the way as the 21st Panzer Division charged towards the sea. In a few minutes, they reached the coast near Lion-sur-Mer where some of the 736th Grenadier Regiment were still holding out. Most of the 21st Panzer Division's offensive power was now poised to strike down Sword Beach that was currently jammed with men and vehicles.

As he prepared to attack, a mass of enemy gliders carrying the 6th Airlanding Brigade (commanded by Brigadier-General Hugh Kindersley) appeared in the sky over them on their way to reinforce the Orne River bridgeheads. The Germans could only conclude in dismay that the mass of gliders were meant to land behind them and spring a great trap. How could they not? It was an awesome sight: 250 gliders in tow by 250 transports that were protected by Spitfire IXs. The gliders carried the 12th Devonshire, the 1st Royal Ulster Rifles Battalions of the 6th Airlanding Brigade, the 6th Airborne's 53rd (Worcestershire Yeomanry) Airlanding Light Artillery Regiment, Royal Artillery, and the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment.

Feuchtinger pushed through the mass of stalled vehicles along with the commander of the 155th Panzer Artillery Regiment,  _Oberst_ Heribert Huhne, and found Rauch and his staff transfixed by the spectacle. It was then that the big guns of the Royal Navy concentrated on the panzers. A broadside lashed at the concentration of armoured vehicles, tossing Panzer IVGs and U304(f) Half-Track variants into the nearby fields. A salvo from one of HMS  _Warspite_ 's eight BL 15-inch Mark I Naval Guns struck the regimental headquarters just as Feuchtinger and Huhne reached them. Opplen-Bronikowski and  _Major_ Wilhelm von Gottberg, commander of 1st Battalion/22nd Panzer Regiment, both watched in horror as the clutch of vehicles disappeared in an eruption of both earth and HE. One command 'Shoot' aboard a British battleship had now made Opplen-Bronikowski commander of a trapped panzer division. He ordered a withdrawal.

When the 21st Panzer Division careened off the Staffordshire Yeomanry on the British 3rd Infantry Division's right, Lieutenant-General Crocker had just moved up to Bieville-Beuville and joined Smith and his battalion commanders.

'Good Lord, they'll get to the beach', muttered one of the officers in the 2nd King's Shropshire Light Infantry Battalion.

Crocker turned to the officers around him and said: 'This is what we'll do. Smith, I want you to attack with the Staffords and Norfolks immediately into the ass of that German herd. The Shropshires can follow. I want to slam the door shut on them and press them into the sea. Quickly, gentlemen. This is the key to Caen'.

He then ordered the 9th Infantry Brigade to detour east and move up quickly to seize Lebisey Woods before striking for the city.

As the 21st Panzer Division streamed back towards Caen in the late afternoon, they were struck by fire from their right flank by the Canadians at Anisy, and from their front by the whole of the Staffordshire Yeomanry which had been flung behind the 21st when it raced towards the sea. The Staffords and the 1st Royal Norfolk Battalion had barely enough time to find excellent firing positions in the village of Mathieu and fold into the ground on either flank before the German stampede ran into them. The fire from the Staffordshire Yeomanry crushed the head of each column. The Germans had tried to counterattack, but it was a disorganized movement that got even worse as one Panzer IVG after another brewed up. The Germans surged up to the Staffords, burned and recoiled, then came again. A few Panzer IVGs and two companies from 1st Battalion/192nd Panzergrenadier Regiment struck towards Lebisey Woods and breaking through the Staffords on their right. They ran into the slower 2nd King's Shropshire Light Infantry Battalion who were coming to the aid of the British tankers. It was a meeting engagement of the worst sort. The German tanks and half-tracks had an advantage in open ground.

Sergeant Harry Miles of Baker Company later wrote: 'They were on us as we were force-marching behind the Staffords. The panzers cut through us and the Panzergrenadiers were firing from their half-tracks as they drove through us. Every man in my section was cut down, and I even saw the Lieutenant-Colonel go down as well. If it hadn't been for the few AT guns we had, they would've killed us all'.

It was suicidal for infantry to stand against tanks and half-tracks in the high-wheat, so they went to ground, leaping up to return fire before diving back into the high-wheat again. The Germans rode through the field, spraying their automatic weapons, crushing living, wounded, and dead British troops under them. The adjutant stood guard over the wounded Lieutenant-Colonel F.J. Maurice before he was cut down in bloody rags over him. Three company commanders were down in the first few minutes, but the AT platoon coolly unlimbered their 6-Pounder Mark IV L/43 Anti-Tank Guns and shot back, knocking out a Panzer IVG and a few half-tracks. The Panzergrenadiers brought up one of their S307(f) PaK Half-Tracks* to duel with the British gunners. Both sides stood to their guns without flinching. The S307(f) PaK was silenced first. Lance-Corporal Harold Williams of Xray Company raced alongside a U304(f) Half-Track and threw a No. 36 Mark I Hand Grenade into the half-track. Nevertheless, a complete slaughter was prevented by the arrival of a troop from the 13th/18th Royal Hussars of the 27th Armoured Brigade. They struck the Germans from the left rear, making torches of a half-a-dozen half-tracks and two of the Panzer IVGs. The Germans panicked, pulled back and disappeared back into the fighting with the Staffords and Norfolks, leaving 286 of the 2nd King's Shropshire Light Infantry Battalion dead and wounded and the carcasses of a dozen burning vehicles on the field.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The S307(f) PaK was a Somua MCG Half-Track converted into an armored half-track and mounted the 75mm PaK 40/1 L/46 Anti-Tank Gun. They were issued to both the Panzejager platoons in the Panzergrenadier battalions and the Panzerjager companies in the Panzergrenadier regiments of the 21st Panzer Division.


	33. The British Landings, June 6th: The dash to Caen

Meanwhile, the 9th Infantry Brigade had moved up past Bieville-Beuville and attacked in the dusk towards Lebisey, leading with both the 2nd Lincolnshire and the 1st King's Own Scottish Borderers Battalions, supported by the 13th/18th Royal Hussars. As night fell and the battle in the high-wheat fields west of Bieville-Beuville died down, the 9th Infantry Brigade had fought its way through the remaining Germans in Lebisey Woods. Brigadier-General Cunningham was barely over a mile from Caen, but with his brigade engulfed in a strange wood in the night, many men would've stopped. 'I'm all teed up to capture Caen and know exactly what to do,' he told his battalion commanders. 'I must stick to my objective: push out immediately towards the city, and don't let anyone dawdle'.

Flames lit up the city from dozens of buildings set afire by the bombing and provided illumination for the 9th Infantry Brigade's night assault into Caen. The defenders were only the eight 88mm FlaK 36 L/56 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Guns from the 21st Panzer Division's 305th Army FlaK Battalion (the 220th Panzer Pioneer Battalion, 200th Field Replacement Battalion, 200th Panzer Signals Battalion, 2nd Battalion/155th Panzer Artillery Regiment, and the 200th Panzer Versorgungstruppen had withdrawn to join up with Kampfgruppe von Luck) and a few rear-service personnel from the 716th Static Division. The '88s' held them up here and there, but the Sherman Vs of the 13th/18th Royal Hussars brushed them aside. The Germans were streaming out of Caen east across the Orne River bridge or south down Route 26. Cunningham and his brigade staff had setup a command post in the town square by 2000. He was anxious about securing the bridge over the Orne River. He stepped into the rubbled street to hurry the 2nd Royal Ulster Rifles Battalion towards the bridge when an enemy officer was led up to him by three of the Scottish Borderers. Marcks limped forward on his cane. The left leg he had lost while commanding the 101st Jager Division on the Eastern Front hadn't made him any less a soldier as he saluted. 'Allow me to introduce myself, Brigadier; I am  _General der Artillerie_ Erich Marcks, commander of the 84th Army Korps'.

Cunningham was getting used to running into corps commanders this day as he returned the salute before extending out his hand. 'Congratulations on a spirited defence, General'.

'No, Brigadier, it is  _I_ who must congratulate you. You have just won the war', replied Marcks.

'Not bloody yet if I don't get that bridge', Cunningham said to himself. Turning Marcks over to his adjutant with instructions to notify Crocker and see to Marcks' proper treatment, he pushed on to join the battalion fighting towards the bridge*.

German survivors of the clash with the Staffords and Shropshires pushed through to Caen in the dark, hoping to find refuge, but ran into the 27th Armoured Brigade's 1st East Riding Yeomanry that was moving into the city, along with the 2nd Royal Warwickshire Battalion that was being held in reserve on Caen's outskirts. Firefights flared through the night as platoon's and individual tanks fired and disappeared. The survivors of the 21st Panzer Division's failed assault to the coast milled around in the dark, stopped by fire in Caen when they tried to enter the city and trapped by the British columns. As first light broke, they began surrendering. Over 1,800 Germans (among them were both Opplen-Bronikowski and Gottberg) gave themselves up the next day. The British 3rd Infantry Division later counted seventy-six Panzer IVGs, six Panzer IVCs, thirty-two Panzer 35S 739(f)s, twelve Flakpanzer 38(t)s, twelve 105mm PzH Lorraine(f) SPGs, six 149.1mm PzH Lorraine(f) SPGs, and an untold number of half-tracks destroyed or abandoned between Caen and Lion-sur-Mer.

By midnight, both the 2nd Royal Ulster Rifles Battalion and the 13th/18th Royal Hussars had overwhelmed the rest of the 21st Panzer Division's 305th Army FlaK Battalion (nine SdKfz 7/2 Anti-Aircraft Half-Tracks, six U304(f) FlaK Half-Tracks, and two SdKfz 7/1 Anti-Aircraft Half-Tracks) who were guarding the Orne River bridge and pushed two companies and a tank squadron over said bridge (the exact same bridge that the 21st Panzer Division had crossed earlier that day). By 0200, the 3rd Infantry Division was digging in along the southern and eastern edges of Caen. The 2nd Royal Warwickshire Battalion, supported by the Sherman Vs of the 1st East Riding Yeomanry, moved onto Carpiquet Airfield southwest of Caen without resistance. The 9th Infantry Brigade had rounded up another 800 POWs from the 716th Static Division in the fight for the city*. 200 Luftwaffe ground personnel quietly surrendered at Carpiquet Airfield. The British 3rd Infantry Division had secured its objective, but was spread out over nine miles from Sword Beach to the southern outskirts of Caen, and west to Carpiquet Airfield which was just south of Bayeux-Caen Highway. The 8th Infantry Brigade had moved up in reserve at Bieville-Beuville, where it could reinforce Caen or the British 6th Airborne Division. Firefights flared in their rear from surviving elements of the 716th Static Division just enough to keep people awake. They had lived on adrenaline all through the night and were spent by early morning. In particular, the 185th Infantry Brigade was burnt out. The 2nd King's Shropshire Light Infantry Battalion had been badly-gutted, having lost over two-thirds of their men. The 1st Royal Norfolk Battalion had lost half of their men, and the Staffordshire Yeomanry had only twenty tanks left.

As the division took its first fitful rest, its commander worried for them all. The 21st Panzer Division had been an unexpected complication, MacDonald thought to himself. Luckily, they had bested it neatly, but where was the real threat, where was the SS?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *After his return from a POW camp, Marcks was later awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross.
> 
> *Among the POWs was Generalleutnant Wilhelm Richter.


	34. The British Landings, June 6th: Gold Beach, 0725

The naval gunfire began just before sunrise. The four 14.91mm TbtsK C/36 Naval Guns in M272 Gun Casemates and one 122mm K390/1(r) Field Gun* in a M272 Gun Casemate of 4th Battery/1260th Army Coastal Artillery Battalion* at Longues-sur-Mer (located to the west of Gold Beach) had just survived 1,500 tons of bombs dropped by the British 2nd Tactical Air Force. The gun crews had still plenty of fight and immediately returned fire. Their first salvo straddled the HMS  _Bulolo_ , which was carrying the HQ of the British 30th Corps (commanded by Lieutenant-General Gerard Bucknall). HMS  _Ajax_ (a  _Leander_ -Class Light Cruiser) rushed to the rescue, pumping 114 SAP (Semi-Armor-Piercing) rounds from her eight BL 6-inch Mark 23 Naval Guns at the German battery at a distance of seven-and-a-half-miles. For  _Ajax_ , it was a matter of precision gunnery as two SAP rounds slammed through the German gun casemate apertures. Within twenty minutes, three of the guns were destroyed and both the fourth and fifth were disabled. The Royal Navy was doing all its best to make sure the men of the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division would have no more difficulty than they could help.

The 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division (commanded by Major-General Douglas Graham) was as dependable as they came on June 6th. Without a doubt, the 50th was the single most combat-experienced division among the five that were landing, having fought in the 1940 French Campaign, North Africa and Sicily. Reinforced by D-Day, the independent 56th Infantry Brigade (commanded by Brigadier-General E.C. Pepper) would be joining the 50th's 69th (commanded by Brigadier-General F.Y.C. Cox), 151st (commanded by Brigadier-General R.H. Senior), 231st (commanded by Brigadier-General A.G.B. Stanier Bart) Infantry Brigades, along with the attached 8th Armoured Brigade (commanded by Brigadier-General Bernard Cracroft). The 50th was to land on the right flank of the British 2nd Army. Their task would be to link up with the Americans coming out of Omaha Beach. A striking force of the attached No. 47 (Royal Marine) Commando was to push inland seven miles and move west behind the German coastal defences to capture Port-en-Bessin that separated both Gold and Omaha Beaches. The rest of the 50th would strike inland to seize the town of Bayeux and drive south to cross Highway N13 that linked Bayeux to Caen (some eight miles away).

The infantrymen in the heaving landing craft that were approaching the shore were coming in on a two-brigade (69th and 231st) front, meaning that two of three battalions were in the first wave with the third following. Each battalion's front was two infantry companies in the first wave and two more following, so that the brigade's initial attack would be delivered by only four infantry companies, one of the details of warfare overlooked by armchair generals. The 231st Infantry Brigade was to land on the right and the 69th Infantry Brigade on the left. After overcoming the German beach defences, they were to peel left and right to allow the follow-on two brigades to land. Thereafter, the division would advance inland on a four-brigade front.

The 716th Static Division had studded the area with powerful concrete fortifications and gun emplacements. The strongest on Gold Beach was WN37*(manned by the 441st Ost Battalion) at Le Hamel where the 231st Infantry Brigade would land was also defended by a coastal minefield five rows deep with another eight rows deep surrounding Le Hamel. Here, the mine were reinforced by an anti-tank ditch. The defenders had been originally judged to be the 726th Grenadier Regiment. Unknown to the 50th, the 726th's 1st and 3rd Battalions (along with the 439th Ost Battalion which was designated as 4th Battalion/726th Grenadier Regiment) had been attached to the first-rate 352nd Infantry Division at Omaha Beach.

For the men in the 50th vomiting in their tossing landing craft, the enemy had ceased to be an immediate priority. The 'Bags, Vomit' were full as they lurched amid the worst seas tormenting any of the Allied landing divisions that morning. They would gladly have faced the enemy so long as it was on dry land. So rough were the wind-whipped seas that there was no question of swimming Sherman II DDs from their LCT(6)s. The tanks were supposed to arrive ahead of the infantry, but now they were to be landed directly onto the beach from their landing craft. They might not get there just ahead of the infantry as originally scheduled, but they would get there.

The first wave of infantry came ashore almost exactly on time at 0730. The Sherman II DDs and Hobart's Funnies were among them, giving both cover and supporting fire. Opposite of Le Hamel, the 1st Hampshire Battalion came ashore with the 1st Dorsetshire Battalion on its left. Able and Baker Companies had landed directly in front WN36*(also manned by the 441st Ost Battalion) and were unable to break into the defences due to heavy MG fire and the fire from the 50mm KwK 38 L/42 Cannon in the Vf600 Gun Pit. The minefields which should've been detonated by the air bombardments were too strong to be penetrated under heavy enemy fire, due to many of the Sherman II Crab Flail Tanks being destroyed on the beach. The attack on WN37 had also been stopped cold. Charlie and Dog Companies had landed at 0740 and tried to break into the town from the east along with the tankers of the Nottinghamshire Yeomanry*. First, they had to get through the mines. They gave covering fire to a sapper officer and his small party who manually removed them. By then, Major Peter Selerie had only five of his original nineteen Sherman II DDs that had came ashore, but he pushed on down the lane towards Le Hamel. The lead tank was struck in the mantelet by the 50mm KwK 38 L/42 Cannon in WN37's sole Vf600 Gun Pit, but survived. The others concentrated their fire and destroyed the position. Outside the town they were overtaken a AVRE Mark IV, the sole survivor of its troop, which eagerly joined the column. As they fought their way into Le Hamel, Selerie identified a two-story customs house as the centre of German resistance in the town. He ordered the AVRE Mark IV forward and it fired its 290mm Mark I or II Petard Mortar into the building, causing the customs house to collapse like a pack of cards as it spilled out its defenders with their MG34/MG42s, handheld anti-tank weapons and an avalanche of bricks into the courtyard. At the same time, Charlie and Dog Companies had found a gap to the east of Le Hamel and captured Asnelles from behind. But the Germans weren't finished at Le Hamel, though, as the  _Ostruppen_ fought stubbornly until their German officers and NCOs were killed. Resistance was finally snuffed out by 1730.

The 1st Dorestshire Battalion had the mission of taking out both WN38* and WN39*(both were also manned by the 441st Ost Battalion) on the high-ground that dominated Arromanches-les-Baine. Said battalion fought its way ashore far more easily than the Hampshires, but they found more opposition than expected on the high-ground. Supported by both a squadron from the Nottinghamshire Yeomanry and the Sexton II SPGs* of the 90th Field Artillery Battalion, Royal Artillery, they overwhelmed the German defenders who destroyed the two radar sets before fleeing.

To the east, the 5th East Yorkshire and the 6th Green Howards Battalions led the landing of the 69th Infantry Brigade. The Green Howards landed several hundred yards west of their assigned beach. Able Company stormed WN35*(manned by a company from the 441st Ost Battalion) in front of them that guarded a beach exit. Captain F.H. Honeyman, aided by both Sergeant H. Prenty and Lance-Corporal A. Joyce, leaped over the seawall and cleared the beach of Germans with grenades. Up the beach, the men of Dog Company were taking fire from the two pillboxes they had bypassed. The company commander, Captain R. Lofthouse, barked out: 'There's a pillbox there, Company Sergeant-Major!'

Company Sergeant-Major Stanley Hollis ran towards the enemy, firing his Sten Mark III SMG from the hip until he reached the pillbox. He then threw a No. 36 Mark I Hand Grenade through the door and waited for it to explode before spraying the inside with his Sten Mark III, killing two Germans. Hollis didn't pause for a moment as he continued along the communications trench towards the main pillbox. Its garrison of twenty-five men quickly surrendered.

To the left of the 6th Green Howards Battalion, the 5th East Yorkshire Battalion were heavily-engaged with WN33*(manned by 7th Company/736th Grenadier Regiment) at the village of La Riviere. One company braved through the fire to drive inland a thousand yards to overrun WN35a*(which housed 3rd Battery/1260th Army Coastal Artillery Battalion) which had been smashed by the air bombardment. The left-hand company was in trouble in front of La Riviere where the air bombardment had missed a fifty-yard swath along the town. The company was now huddled behind the seawall as the German MG42s and the casemated 88mm PaK 43/41 L/71 Anti-Tank Gun swept their position up and down the beach. The German were poring well-aimed fire into the landing craft that were lurching between the beach obstacles, trying to drop their ramps and among the men that were trying to rush ashore. Two AVRE Mark IVs trying to trundle ashore were destroyed. Stuffed with their demolition ammo, they exploded with special destructiveness, killing many of the infantry around them. The Germans sensed they had the upper hand and pressed it, adding heavy mortar fire to the beach and tossing M43 Hand Grenades over the seawall. The Yorks weren't beaten yet as a platoon followed a Sherman II DD over the seawall and began clearing the houses that faced the beach. At the same time, another platoon supported by AVRE Mark IVs and Sherman II DDs had pushed inland and now attacked La Riviere from the rear. The German defence collapsed, and the village was cleared by 0900.

By 1000, the 6th Green Howards Battalion had captured the Mauvaines Ridge about a mile inland. Once more, Company Sergeant-Major Hollis was in the van as the Company's diary recalled:

'...the Company encountered a field gun and its crew, armed with MG42s, at a 100-yards range. CSM Hollis was put in command of a party to cover an attack on the field gun, but the movement was held up. Seeing this, CSM Hollis pushed right forward to engage the field gun with a PIAT* from a house at fifty yards. He was observed by a sniper who fired and missed him, and at the same moment the PIAT swung round and fired at point-blank range into the house the sniper was in. To avoid the falling masonry, CSM Hollis moved his party to an alternate position. Two of the enemy gun crew had by this time been killed, and the field gun was destroyed shortly afterwards'.

When he discovered that two of his men had been left behind, Hollis went back for them in full view of the Germans who energetically did their extreme best to kill him. Firing a Bren Mark II LMG, he distracted them long enough for his men to slip away and followed after them completely unscathed. For this exploit and the one earlier, Company Sergeant-Major Stanley Hollis would be awarded the Victoria Cross, and the  _only_ one to be awarded for D-Day.

The reserve battalion, the 7th Green Howards, had landed and were moving inland to seize the little crossroads village of Crepon which was more than two miles inland by 1230. The 69th Infantry Brigade had broken through the beach defenses and its three battalions were pushing aggressively inland. By 1500, they had seized the crossing over the Seulles River three-and-a-half miles inland. German resistance flared south of the river, but the Green Howards and East Yorks pitched into them and drove them back everywhere. Files of German POWs began to impede traffic moving inland. By 1800, the 7th Green Howards Battalion and the tanks of the 8th Armoured Brigade's 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards had fought their way through Creully and were pushing onto Coulombs. The fight at Creully had been the first for the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, but not for its A Squadron commander, Major Jackie D'Avigdor-Goldsmid. He had fought in France in 1940, and the experience he had received had ensured that his command would be trained to a fine edge the next time around. Today, he was careful to study the ground in order to find the hiding places in the folds and woods to be used for tactical bounds. 'Shake out into two-up formations-1st Troop to the left, 2nd Troop to the right, 3rd and 4th behind, and 1st and 2nd respectively. Now, lets go!' It was a glorious summer day and D'Avigdor-Goldsmid exulted in the beautiful tank country. He knew well enough to realize that it was also beautiful anti-tank country too, and was currently scanning for any movement or giveaway that the enemy was waiting. Then two of his leading Sherman Vs exploded. 'Speed up! Make for cover-the line of trees 400 yards ahead of us on the left side of the road!' A third Sherman V was hit, and 'immediately a near-solid column of dense black smoke spiraled vertically upwards for about 100-feet'. First-Lieutenant Alistair Morrison, twenty-years-old and following with 4th Troop, was surprised as he recalled:

'Throughout my training, I had formed a mental picture of a tank 'brewing up'. I had originally expected to see a few sparse flames licking from the stricken tank, followed by the hurried disembarkation of the crew who were possibly wounded or burned, and after a short interval before the ammo inside the tank exploding. But the reality was quite different. The tank had without warning became an instant inferno. And to my right, I could see the turret of one of 2nd Troop's tanks that was glowing red. Above both tanks was a black pillar of smoke, hanging as if suspended by some invisible beam'.

Morrison joined 1st Troop, which was commanded by First-Lieutenant Peter Aizelwood, and saw 'a spark as if someone had struck a match against the side of Aizelwood's tank. Then 'woomph' came from inside the tank as the tell-tale column of black smoke began to immediately erupt from the stricken tank'. But Morrison had seen (by sheer luck) a flash at the foot of a telephone pole in the distance and a thread of smoke drifting away. He had found the killer. To advance against it courted the same fate as the pillars of smoke around him. Direct fire was prevented due to the bow of the ground, but indirect fire was another method and one that Morrison hadn't shone in training which had 'entailed a lot of mumbo-jumbo about bracketing'. But to his amazement, the second shot landed in front of the target. His gunner adjusted his aim before firing the third shot which resulted in flames and smoke from a direct hit. Morrison had little time to savour his first kill when a heavy bombardment of large-caliber shells fell on them. It passed quickly, but not before wounding two officers. The 7th Green Howards Battalion, whom A Squadron had been supporting, was caught out in the open and was badly hurt. D'Avigdor-Goldsmid was puzzled as he quickly notice that the shelling was coming from behind them. HMS  _Orion_ (a  _Leander_ -Class Light Cruiser) recorded in its log that day: 'Enemy tanks destroyed-well done'.

To the southwest of Creully, the other two battalions were engaged in a set-piece fight for the village of Brecey which seemed to have sucked the German defenders in that direction. The 7th Green Howards Battalion saw the chance and pushed on to Saint-Leger on the Bayeux-Caen Highway, the division's D-Day objective line. As the fighting died down around Brecey by 2130, the 7th Green Howards Battalion and a few Sherman Vs were in control of the town. Their night was enlivened by shooting up unsuspecting German traffic driving into the town from either direction.

Following behind the 231st Infantry Brigade, No. 47 (Royal Marine) Commando had landed at 1000. Three landing craft were lost with seventy men from the still-active WN37 at Le Hamel. Many of the seventy eventually showed up and rearmed with captured German weapons. Their first assembly area, located south of Le Hamel, was already occupied by a German infantry company. The Royal Marine Commandos immediately attacked, but the German infantry company's fields-of-fire were excellent and their MG42 crews were veterans. The Royal Marine Commandos staggered back with sixty casualties. Another attack failed, this time leaving as many more dead and wounded. Finally, the weight of both strafing Typhoon Mark Ibs and the five BL 6-inch Mark 12 Naval Guns of HMS  _Emerald_ (an  _Emerald_ -Class Light Cruiser) were able to beat down the defenders long enough for the Royal Marine Commandos to break into their positions and clean them out. But it was late in the afternoon, and No. 47 (Royal Marine) Commando still had seven miles to march before reaching its objective of Port-en-Bessin.

The two reserve brigades were ashore by 1100, and were moving inland by 1500, organized into all-arms mobile columns. They brushed aside occasional German resistance and headed towards the division's objective line. Lieutenant-Colonel A.E. Green, commander of the 151st Infantry Brigade's 6th Durham Light Infantry Battalion, recalled the advance:

'The mobile column, under the command of my XO, moved off at 1500, two hours behind the time originally planned. Movement was slow because of the congestion of troops and material on and near the main roads, along with the difficulties of driving Sherman Vs through narrow village streets. Some enemy resistance pockets were met near Villiers-le-Sec by the mobile column, but quick action by Captain Mike Kirk who commanded the vanguard drove the Germans from their positions. During the whole move of the mobile column, we encountered no enemy artillery fire and were only held up by small pockets of Germans, which were beaten up. My battalion reached its first objective at Esquay-sur-Seulles by 2000'.

Dusk was falling as Major-General Douglas Graham, commander of the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, realized just how much luck had fallen his way. Once his two leading brigades had broken through the crust of the German beach defences, resistance seemed to have crumbled. The 7th Green Howards Battalion had actually cut the Bayeux-Caen Highway at Saint-Leger. From every unit, he was hearing the same story as related by Lieutenant-Colonel Green. The surprise of finding out that 1st Battalion/726th Grenadier Regiment was attached to the German 352nd Infantry Division in the sector had been quite a shock that quickly wore off. Graham knew nothing of the catastrophe on his right at Omaha Beach where the 352nd had been concentrated in strength*. Kraiss, for better or worse, had gambled everything on crushing Omaha Beach. If Graham had known, it might've stayed his hand, but now he could only see opportunity and was determined to gather as much of it in his arms as he could. Push on, the division's D-Day objective line was within his grasp, push on.

The extra exhortation from above pushed the tanks of the Nottinghamshire Yeomanry, along with the 56th Infantry Brigade's 2nd Essex Battalion, into the town of Bayeux by 2300. The town was mostly empty of Germans, except for the Chateau de Sully which was the HQ for  _Oberst_ Walter Korfes 726th Grenadier Regiment, who surrendered along with his staff when the British troops surrounded the chateau. The 151st Infantry Brigade was roused from its position at Esquay-sur-Seulles to continue moving south 'till it crossed the Bayeux-Caen Highway and cut the railroad a mile further on. By midnight, the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division had everywhere reached and in some cases exceeded its D-Day objective line. Only No. 47 (Royal Marine) Commando was behind schedule in approaching its target: Port-en-Bessin. The British 30th Corps had torn a lodgement eight miles deep and seven miles wide in Hitler's Atlantic Wall as the enemy receded before them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The K390/1(r) was the German designation for the Soviet 122mm M1931 (A-19) L/46.3 Field Gun.
> 
> *Originally, the battery was part of the 260th Naval Artillery Battalion, but when OKW decided to streamline command and control of the coastal defenses, the battery was subordinated to the 1260th Army Coastal Artillery Battalion, becoming its 4th Battery.
> 
> *WN37 major weapons (bunker type): a 75mm FK 38 L/34 Field Gun in a H612 Gun Casemate and a 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Gun in a H667 Gun Casemate.
> 
> *WN36 major weapons (bunker type): a Vf600 Gun Pit.
> 
> *Also known as the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry.
> 
> *WN39 major weapons (bunker type): a FuMO 2-Calis B Seetakt Land-Based Naval Surface Search Radar mounted on a V229 Stand, a FuMO 214-Giant Wurzburg Seetakt Land-Based Naval Surface Search Radar mounted on a V229 Stand, and two 75mm FK 38 L/34 Field Guns in H612 Gun Casemates.
> 
> *WN38 major weapons (bunker type): two Vf600SK Gun Casemates.
> 
> *The Sexton II was based around the chassis of the Sherman II and armed with the 25-Pounder Mark II L/28 Field Gun/Howitzer.
> 
> *WN35 major weapons (bunker type): six unknown bunker types.
> 
> *WN33 major weapons (bunker type): an 88mm PaK 43/41 L/71 Anti-Tank Gun in a H677 Gun Casemate, a 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Gun in a H677 Gun Casemate, and a Vf600 Gun Pit.
> 
> *WN35a major weapons (bunker type): four 122mm K390/1(r) Field Guns in H679 Gun Casemates.
> 
> *Projector Infantry Anti-Tank Mark I.
> 
> *The U.S 5th Corps lost 18,105 men dead, wounded, missing or captured on Omaha Beach.


	35. The British Landings, June 6th: Juno Beach, 0745

Of all the five divisions that landed on June 6th, none was more an object of apprehension than that of the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division (commanded by Major-General Rodney F.L. Keller). The mauling of the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division at Dieppe two years earlier had left a nagging fear among the senior Allied commanders that perhaps a second national catastrophe awaited the gallant Canadians. The Canadian troops themselves, like their British and American counterparts, felt mostly seasick as they were heaved about the four-foot waves of the retreating Channel storm. Underneath the seasickness, which in any case would be quickly cured under enemy fire, was the hard-edged determination to avenge Dieppe. It burned more deeper, more hotter, and more recent than the British memory of Dunkirk. While the British had their lucky exit from the Continent, the Canadians had left the French beaches of Dieppe soaked with blood.

The Canadians wouldn't be making the same mistakes again. This time, they wouldn't be landing directly into a fortress port. This time, there would be massive preparatory air bombardments and naval gunfire support, and there would also be every possible device to overwhelm the beach obstacles erected by German skill, energy and cunning. Sherman II DDs and the rest of Hobart's Funnies, and the Royal Marines' Centaur IVs armed with QF 95mm L/18.65 Howitzers for fire support. Two brigades would make the landing and push inland. Hopefully, the situation would develop so that the third brigade (being held in reserve) would be able to shoot ahead and capture the high-ground around Carpiquet Airfield outside of Caen and just south of Highway N13.

This time, the odds were much more in the Canadians' favour. Against twelve well-fit and honed Canadian Battalions, the Germans were defending the beach with the 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th Companies of the 736th Grenadier Regiment, barely 400 men, against 2,400 Canadians in the first wave alone.

Because of low-cloud cover, the British air bombardment of the night before and the Americans early this morning were the least successful of any delivered in support of landing forces that day, except for Omaha Beach. The British effort yielded poor results and the Americans missed entirely, dropping their bombs in the unoccupied fields behind the beaches. The only slaughter was again among the omnipresent Norman dairy cattle. Naval gunfire support was more successful. HMS  _Diadem_ (a  _Bellona_ -Class Light Cruiser) and HMS  _Belfast_ (a  _Town_ -Class Light Cruiser) added their power from 0500, and were joined an hour later by seventeen destroyers as they concentrated on both WN28a*(which housed 7th Battery/1716th Artillery Regiment) and WN32*(which housed 6th Battery/1716th Artillery Regiment).

The Canadians were coming in on a two-brigade front, like the 50th to their right. They would have the Canadian 9th Infantry Brigade (commanded by Brigadier-General Douglas Cunningham) in reserve. The Canadian 7th (commanded by Brigadier-General Harry W. Foster) and 8th (commanded by Brigadier-General Kenneth G. Blackadder) Infantry Brigades would each land with two battalions while supported by a DD tank battalion in the first wave. Each infantry battalion would attack with two companies forward and two more following in fifteen minutes. The Sherman II DDs were to emerge from the water just ahead of the infantry to provide a firing moving shield to shoot them across Juno Beach. The Canadian 3rd Infantry Division would be the last Allied division to hit the beach that day for the tide to carry the landing craft over the Bernieres Reefs. Rough seas added another ten minutes.

The same seas made it too dangerous to launch the Sherman II DDs, and it was decided to land them directly over the beach. A mile-and-a-half from Juno Beach, the commander of the Canadian 7th Infantry Brigade decided to launch them, and they arrived as planned just ahead of the infantry. The Canadian 8th Infantry Brigade's Sherman II DDs came clanking off their landing craft barely after the infantry. German fire was negligible against the incoming landing craft, but what was more deadly was the lost ten minutes. The incoming tide was now flushing through and submerging the German beach obstacles that the Allied planners had hoped to avoid by landing at low-tide. Royal Marine frogmen had landed earlier and had cleared only a few lanes through the beach obstacles and mines. The landing craft had to force their way ashore, threading the mine-tipped beach obstacles amid the heaving tide that threw craft aside or onto them. Surprisingly, there were few losses among the troops on the numerous holed or destroyed landing craft. Most struggled ashore, following the assorted tanks that were either blowing or flailing their way through the minefields and German defences.

The Canadian 7th Infantry Brigade landed with both the 1st Royal Winnipeg Rifles and the 1st Regina Rifle Battalions from left to right, each supported by a squadron from the 6th Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars) on either side of the German defences of Courseulles-sur-Mer: WN29*, WN30*, and WN31*(all three were manned by 6th Company/736th Grenadier Regiment), the strongest position on Juno Beach. Baker Company of the Reginas found almost no resistance and cleared its assigned sector. Able Company landed directly into the teeth of the undiminished German defences as the men raced across the beach to the safety of the seawall. Luckily, the tanks of the 6th Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars) had landed just ahead of them and were engaging the German guns from 200-yards as the infantry raced to safety. The Sherman II DDs moved through the beach obstacles to support the infantry attack into the town, dueling with the German guns of WN29, whose crews were brave and energetically, though not accurately served. The H677 Gun Casemate containing the 88mm PaK 43/41 L/71 Anti-Tank Gun (which was the last one functioning) was passed by Sergeant Leo Gariepy's tank. He stopped his Sherman II DD before breaking open a bottle of gin and shared it with his crew. Then he reversed and pumped seven 75mm AP rounds at the gun casemate at point-blank range. All the while, the Reginas had been fighting through the trenches and dugouts of WN29, killing or capturing Germans.

The 1st Royal Winnipeg Rifles Battalion fought a surprisingly similar action. Charlie Company encountered little resistance as they pushed inland behind Courseulles-sur-Mer to capture the village of Graye-sur-Mer. Baker Company ran into a buzzsaw as they waded through chest-deep water to the beach. The tanks hadn't arrived as the infantry huddled on the sand while under accurate fire from WN31 for an eternity of six minutes. When they did arrive, the Royal Winnipegs followed them in a rush, leaving bodies in windrows behind them. As they smashed into the town with the tanks, only twenty-six men were that was left of Baker Company. Of the 128 Royal Winnipegs killed that day, most of them had fallen on the beach. Supporting the attack were two troops from the 26th Assault Squadron, Royal Engineers, who were clearing exits off the beach with their AVRE Mark IVs. Faced with an anti-tank ditch with a flooded culvert behind, the AVRE Mark IVs of one troop dropped their fascine bundles to create a passage over the anti-tank ditch. The second troop crossed to fill the culvert, but the lead AVRE Mark IV stopped when its engine got clogged up.

Within two hours, Courseulles-sur-Mer had fallen and the Canadian 7th Infantry Brigade was moving inland. By noon, they had linked up with the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division on their right. The only remaining enemy resistance were WN30 and a few  _Ostruppen_ that were holed up in a sanatorium west of Graye-sur-Mer. For both of them, the end came at 1800. There was a hard edge to the Canadian victory, though. Able Seaman Edward Ashworth had come ashore off his LCT(6) to pick up a German helmet as a souvenir. He saw Canadian soldiers marched three German POWs behind a sand dune and later emerged alone. Thinking to find his souvenir helmet, Ashworth went behind the sand dune and found the three German POWs lying on the ground dead with their throats slit.

To the east, the Canadian 8th Infantry Brigade's had put both the 1st Queen's Own Rifles of Canada and the 1st North Shore (New Brunswick) Battalions ashore ahead of the tanks of the 10th Armoured Regiment (Fort Garry Horse). Baker Company of the Queen's Own Rifles had drifted two hundred yards east of their assigned sector and directly in the fire of WN28*(manned by 5th Company/736th Grenadier Regiment) at Bernieres-la-Rive. Like the Americans at Omaha Beach, they couldn't advance across that beaten zone and had to huddle under the little protection offered by the German-made beach obstacles. In a few minutes, sixty-five men laid dead or wounded. First-Lieutenant W.G. Herbert, along with Lance-Corporal Rene Tessier and Rifleman* William Chicoski, made a mad dash for the 10-foot seawall. They then worked their way along it, using No. 36M Hand Grenades, Herbert's Sten Mark III SMG and Tessier and Chicoski's Lee-Enfield No. 4 Bolt-Action Rifles through the gun ports and wiped out one German position after another. Elsewhere, an LCF(4)* almost grounded itself to fire both its four 2-Pounder Mark 8 L/39 Autocannons and its eight 20mm Oerlikon Mark II L/70 Autocannons into the town and silence its German defenders so thoroughly that sniper fire was the only obstacle against further Canadian advances. The 1st North Shore (New Brunswick) Battalion's landing sector at Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer was bravely defended by WN27*(also manned by 5th Company/736th Grenadier Regiment), whose 50mm KwK 38 L/42 Cannon in a Vf600SK Gun Casemate destroyed two Sherman II DDs as they drove ashore from their landing craft. The Vf600SK Gun Casemate was finally smothered by the combined efforts of a QF 95mm L/18.65 Howitzer of a Centaur IV, and the 75mm M3 L/40 Cannons of two Sherman II DDs of the 10th Armoured Regiment (Fort Garry Horse). The fighting would continue as the men of the 1st North Shore (New Brunswick) Battalion were able to capture Tailleville (which housed the HQ for 2nd Battalion/736th Grenadier Regiment) after a short firefight before struggling to capture the Douvres I and II Strongpoints*.

Landing behind the Canadian 8th Infantry Brigade was No. 48 (Royal Marine) Commando, whose mission was to strike inland and head east to link up with No. 41 (Royal Marine) Commando coming from Sword Beach seven miles away. The Royal Marine Commandos had a rough start at the hands of the still-active German MG gunners and artillerymen. The German gunners were still frantically pumping shells down Juno Beach, causing heavy casualties among the Royal Marine Commandos.

Despite this last pocket of resistance, the fight for Juno Beach was over within two hours, and most of the companies of the Canadian 7th and 8th Infantry Brigades' first wave battalions were pushing inland with whatever tanks they could find. The Canadian 8th Infantry Brigade's reserve unit, the French-Canadians of 1st Battalion/Regiment de la Chaudiere, had already joined them in the push inland. A few German MG crews around Beny-sur-Mer threatened to hold up the advance, but were overwhelmed by a combination of both air support and naval gunfire. The few Frenchmen that emerged from the town were surprised to hear that the Canadians (who they mistook for British troops) marching into Beny-sur-Mer spoke excellent French. Except for a few German snipers, the advance resembled a training road march more than an attack into enemy territory. A sense of both triumph and relief surged through the Canadians as they pushed on deeper into the Normandy countryside. For No. 48 (Royal Marine) Commando pressing east to link up with their fellow Royal Marine Commandos from Sword Beach, the rest of the day would be more frustrating. About a mile east of Juno Beach, No. 48 (Royal Marine) Commando approached the village of Langrune-sur-Mer, which the Germans had turned into a fortress by bricking up every door and window facing outward and blocking the streets with concrete walls. Two Centaur IVs advanced with the Royal Marine Commandos. The first exhausted its ammunition and was replaced by the second, which promptly hit a mine and blew up. Without artillery support, tanks and scaling ladders, the men of No. 48 (Royal Marine) Commando had no way to break into the village.

Back on Juno Beach, the efforts of the beachmaster, Captain Colin Maud of the Royal Navy, was keeping the flood of men, vehicles, supplies and other equipment from clogging the beach. The Royal Engineers were busy blasting open holes in the seawall and clearing the mines from the dunes. Exit after exit was quickly cleared in preparation for the follow-on units to move through. One German bunker that continued to defy its attackers was finally dealt with by an engineer who was very annoyed that said bunker continued to hold up his work. Driving a Caterpillar D7 Armoured Bulldozer, the engineer convinced the Germans to come out of the bunker with their hands up in fear of being buried alive. When the Canadian 9th Infantry Brigade landed at noon, it was efficiently guided through the mass of men, vehicles, supplies and other equipment before going through the beach exits and moving inland. With bagpipes skirling, the Canadian-Scots of the 1st Highland Light Infantry of Canada, the 1st Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders, and the 1st North Nova Scotia Highlanders Battalions moved quickly inland. With them were the tanks of the 27th Armoured Regiment (Sherbrooke Fusiliers). Their objective: Carpiquet.

By early evening, the Canadian 9th Infantry Brigade had reached Anisy on the division's left boundary. From the village church steeple, a tank battle was visible in the sector of the British 3rd Infantry Division, but the brigade continued to push south. Within two miles, the Canadian 9th Infantry Brigade was in action against a reserve company from the 716th Static Division. Darkness had finally driven out the long summer's day about 2330, when both the advance guard of Sherman Vs of the 27th Armoured Regiment (Sherbrooke Fusiliers) and the 1st North Nova Scotia Highlanders Battalion drew heavy fire as they attempted to enter the crossroads village of Buron. Two Sherman Vs blazed up quickly and illuminated the night. An 88mm PaK 43/41 L/71 Anti-Tank Gun had a perfect field-of-fire down the road and quickly cleared it. Fire from MG42s had scythed the edges of the road the infantry columns had thrown themselves. Rifleman Robert Duncan had entered the village behind the tanks, walking along the buildings. He plastered himself into a doorway and watched as the hatch flew open on the lead Sherman V. 'I watched a human torch struggle halfway out of the commander's hatch and then collapse over the turret. The fire then roared out of the hatch as it began to fed on his corpse. He was the first man I had seen killed in combat. Despite all that came later, the scene still haunts me to this day'.

The North Nova Scotia Highlanders were fighting their very first combat action and at night. It wasn't surprising that their reaction was a bit stiff, but their infantry companies finally worked west around Buron and broke in. The 1st Highland Light Infantry of Canada Battalion was able to work its way around from the east and cut off the Germans. House by House, the Canadian-Scots fought until Captain David McLeod and three of his men of Able Company rushed the 88mm PaK 43/41 L/71 Anti-Tank Gun with grenades from the rear. With the gun crew killed, the surviving Germans surrendered. At the cost of eighty-five dead or wounded, the Canadian 9th Infantry Brigade had captured 133 Germans and killed 79. It was 0113 before the brigade was on the move again.

By 0235, a nervous patrol of the Sherbrooke Fusiliers, commanded by Second-Lieutenant John P. Avery, rolled through the hangars and support buildings of Carpiquet Airfield. Expecting more Germans, Avery was surprised to find the high silhouettes of other Sherman Vs of the 1st East Riding Yeomanry. The Canadian 3rd Infantry Division had linked up with the British 3rd Infantry Division. 'We knew it was momentous, but we were just too tired to do more than shake hands and get the brigade on the radio', recalled Avery for he couldn't have known about the collective sighs of relief from the great men commanding the Allied armies and governments. For barely a thousand casualties, the Canadians had won a signal victory and advanced farther than any Allied division that day. For Second-Lieutenant Avery, sleep beckoned him and the darkness seemed safely empty of Germans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *WN28a major weapons (bunker type): four 100mm leFH 14/19(t) Light Field Howitzers in open gun pits.
> 
> *WN32 major weapons (bunker type): four leFH 14/19(t) Light Field Howitzers in H669 Gun Casemates.
> 
> *WN29 major weapons (bunker type): an 88mm PaK 43/41 L/71 Anti-Tank Gun in a H677 Gun Casemate, a 75mm FK 16 nA L/36 Field Gun in a H612 Gun Casemate, a 75mm FK 231(f) Field Gun in a H612 Gun Casemate, a 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Gun in an open gun pit, and one Panzerstellung Tobruk.
> 
> *WN30 major weapons (bunker type): Reinforced Houses.
> 
> *WN31 major weapons (bunker type): a 75mm FK 16 nA L/36 Field Gun in a H612 Gun Casemate, and two 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Guns in open gun pits.
> 
> *WN28 major weapons (bunker type): a 75mm PaK 40 L/46 Anti-Tank Gun in a H604 Gun Casemate, a 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Gun in a timber casemate, and one Panzerstellung Tobruk.
> 
> *Some branches and regiments in the Royal Canadian Army use distinctive rank names in place of Master-Corporal, Corporal and Private. Rifleman is the distinctive rank name for any Privates serving in the rifle regiments.
> 
> *Landing Craft Flak Mark 4.
> 
> *WN27 major weapons (bunker type): a single Vf600SK Gun Casemate.
> 
> *The Douvres I and II Strongpoints were Luftwaffe stations. 
> 
> The Douvres I Strongpoint housed a FuMG 410A Freya-LZ Early-Warning/Anti-Aircraft Targeting Radar, a FuMG 450 A/N Freya-LZ Early Warning/Anti-Aircraft Radar, a FuSE 65 Giant Wurzburg Gun Laying Radar mounted on a V229 Stand, a R622 Personnel Bunker with a roof-mounted 20mm FlaK 38 L/65 Autocannon, three 20mm FlaK 30 L/65 Autocannons in open gun pits, an L410A FlaK Command Bunker with two roof-mounted 37mm FlaK 43 L/57 Autocannons, two 37mm FlaK 43 L/57 Autocannons in open gun pits, a 75mm PaK 40 L/46 Anti-Tank Gun in an open gun pit, a Vf600 Gun Pit, a 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Gun in an open gun pit, a Panzerstellung Tobruk, two Vf58c HMG Tobruks, and multiple Vf58d LMG Tobruks.
> 
> The Douvres II Strongpoint housed two FuSE 65 Giant Wurzburg Gun Laying Radars mounted on V229 Stands, a FuMG 402 Wassermann Early-Warning/Anti-Aircraft Targeting Radar, an L410A FlaK Command Bunker with two roof-mounted 37mm FlaK 43 L/57 Autocannons, two 37mm FlaK 43 L/57 Autocannons in open gun pits, and four Vf58c HMG Tobruks.
> 
> The defenders were the 8th Company/53rd Luftwaffe Signals Regiment.


	36. Operation Royal Oak, June 7th: Panzer Lehr on the move/British 1st Airborne Division preparing for departure

At 0500, the 130th Panzer Lehr Regiment had stopped for a breather to refuel and let their tank engines cool down. The regiment still had thirty miles to go to reach its attack sector midway between Bayeux and Caen. The entire Panzer Lehr Division was moving along five separate routes into Normandy.  _Generalleutnant_ Bayerlein's orders were to attack the centre of the British-Canadian lodgement. His right flank would rest on the 21st Panzer Division around Caen and his left flank by the 12th SS Panzer Division somewhere north of Bayeux.  _Oberst_ Rudolf Gerhardt's 130th Panzer Lehr Regiment had already been reinforced with both 1st Battalion/901st Panzergrenadier Lehr Regiment and 1st Battalion/902nd Panzergrenadier Lehr Regiment so that they would enter the battle area, ready for combat. Panzer Lehr was one of the few panzer divisions in the West to be at full strength with eighty-nine Panther A Medium Tanks*, ninety-nine Panzer IVHs and twelve Flakpanzer 38(t)s in its 130th Panzer Lehr Regiment*. Also attached to the regiment was the 316th Heavy Panzer Company with eight Tiger I Heavy Tanks and ten StuG IIIG Assault Guns. The 130th Panzer Artillery Lehr Regiment was equipped with twelve 105mm Wespe SPGs, six 149mm Hummel SPGs, twelve 105mm leFH 18/40 L/31 Light Field Howitzers, and twelve 152.4mm sFH 443(r) Howitzers*. The 130th Panzerjager Lehr Battalion had thirty-one Jagdpanzer IV Tank Destroyers and twelve Marder IIIM Tank Destroyers. In divisional reserve was the 101st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion with its forty-five Tiger I Heavy Tanks and its renowned tank killer, Michael Wittmann. Bayerlein had traced the 130th Panzer Lehr Regiment's route of advance to place it in the centre of the British-Canadian lodgement: Aunay-sur-Odon to Villers-Bocage to Tilly-sur-Seulles. The panzergrenadier regiments would be taking parallel routes on either side.

Also at 0500, the men of the British 1st Airborne Division were making their final checks on their gear before loading their C-47 Dakotas and gliders in Southern England. The forces available to Major-General Robert 'Roy' Urquhart were the 1st Airlanding Brigade (commanded by Brigadier-General Philip Hicks), and the 1st (commanded by Brigadier-General Sir Gerald Lathbury) and 4th (commanded by Brigadier-General Sir John Hackett) Parachute Brigades. Also attached for this operation was Major-General Stanislaw Sosabowski's 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade. The air transport units that had dropped the two American and one British airborne divisions the day before with small loses in aircraft would be supporting the single drop of Urquhart's complete division at 1030. The aircrews were tired, but the ground crews had worked miracles in turning their aircraft around. Urquhart hadn't been happy about the last-minute changes to the drop-zones. Originally, the division had prepared for brigade-sized drops clustered around Evrecy. But that had all been changed. The brigades would be dropped in a wide arc from Villers-Bocage to Aunay-sur-Odon to Thury-Harcourt on the Orne River. Their mission was to hold these crossroads towns for only a few hours until relieved by both the British 7th Armoured Division and the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division. There wasn't much else that Urquhart could do as he knew that it would be impossible to fight as a division along a 15-mile front.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The Panther A was the second variant of the Panther tank to see combat in WW2. The Panther A featured a redesigned turret, a new cast commander's cupola which featured a steel hoop to which a third MG34 Panzerlauf could be mounted for use in the AA role, and a ball-mounted MG34 Panzerlauf in the frontal plate instead of the 'letterbox' flap hull MG port.
> 
> *At the time, the 130th Panzer Lehr Regiment's 1st Battalion was still in training at the time, and had to substitute its missing Panther battalion with 1st Battalion/6th Panzer Regiment from the 3rd Panzer Division.
> 
> *The sFH 443(r) was the German designation for the Soviet 152.4mm M1938 (M-10) L/24.3 Howitzer.


	37. Operation Royal Oak, June 7th: Seizing Opportunities

Montgomery arrived at his newly established 21st Army Group HQ at the Chateau de Creullet (located on the northern bank of the Seulles River across from Creully) early in the morning. His appraisal of the current situation to his staff that morning emphasized on the opportunities presented by the landings. The linchpin of his grand strategic plan, the success of the American landings, had fallen out with the disaster at Omaha Beach and the tenuous foothold at Utah Beach. Under these conditions, to draw the main German panzer reserves upon the British-Canadian forces without the great American right hook building up as a counterweight seemed to court disaster. Not so, as contingency planning had thought this through. The British and Canadian divisions had met all of their objectives and in a few cases had gone beyond. And in the process, the only German panzer reserve within striking range of the British-Canadian sector had been blunted. Although strong German forces remained in the Omaha Beach sector, the British and the Canadians had torn open the front in their sector. Opportunity beckoned for a rapid exploitation that could strike deep to the south and then turn west to trap the Germans up against the very beach at Omaha.

Now was also the time to reap the rewards of confusion in the German chain-of-command. Without revealing its Ultra source, Montgomery announced that according to the Germans, Rommel was MIA or possibly a POW. 'Will someone check the prisoner pens? If we have him, I would like to invite him to dinner'. They did, however, have both a very live German corps commander and a division commander in their possession. Monty would've been even more pleased had he known that the middle link in the German chain-of-command in Normandy was about to be snipped as well.  _Generaloberst_ Friedrich Dollmann, commander of the 7th Army, was rushing to the 84th Army Korps HQ by staff car to take personal control of the situation, when a pair of Typhoon Mark Ibs strafed his car and leaving him dead in the torn back seat*.

Montgomery now pointed to the area southwest of Caen, which was the arc of crossroads towns and villages that the Red Devils would seize. The British 1st Airborne Division was even now airborne and should be hitting its drop-zones by 1030. The Red Devils, strung like gems on a strand, would be the shield that would hold the approaching panzer reserves as far forward as possible. At one stroke, they would double the depth of the lodgement area and open up opportunities for the British 2nd Army to manoeuvre west to recoup the loss of Omaha Beach and salvage the grand plan. Again Ultra had informed Monty that the Panzer Lehr Division was making a forced march to attack somewhere between Bayeux and Caen.

It was late in the morning before the staff of the British 2nd Army could work out the planning and disseminate the instructions necessary for the drive inland to support the British 1st Airborne Division, now codenamed as Operation Royal Oak. Hours before the British and the Canadians were ready to move, eyes lifted skyward all along the coast to see the second greatest airstream of transports and gliders to cross into France in two days. The truth was that the British 2nd Army's divisions weren't neatly arrayed along the forward edge of the lodgement everywhere. The beaches at Gold, Juno and Sword had been organized to push new troops, vehicles, supplies and other equipment inland and were working well, but the press of traffic meant that new divisions were being unloaded over several days and weren't immediately available. The divisions that were already ashore had been spread across the sector during the fighting for the beaches. The British 3rd Infantry and the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Divisions were still in combat on the flanks and were currently reducing isolated German strongpoints. Only the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division was in a position to put more than just brigade into the push. In all, six brigades (including two weak armoured brigades) would be making this push. Behind them, elements of the 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division which was also landing on June 7th would be committed in reserve as its remaining elements came ashore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *He was posthumously awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross.


	38. Operation Royal Oak, June 7th: Case Three Revisited

Within minutes of the passage of the airborne stream over the coast, von Rundstedt was informed at his OB West HQ. This Junker of the landed Prussian nobility swallowed his personal contempt of the man he scorned as the 'Bohemian  _Gefreiter_ (Lance-Corporal)'* as he personally called Jodl at OKW demanded to speak immediately to the Fuhrer. Jodl again tried to be a buffer for his master, who had worked into the morning as usual and was now sleeping late. But von Rundstedt was in a angry mood and pulled rank on Jodl to demand immediate access to the German Supreme War Lord.

Hitler's voice was vague when he answered, but von Rundstedt cut through the former enlisted man's attempt at small talk:

'The Allies are, as we speak, conducting another massive airborne drop south of Caen, perhaps in the direction of either Falaise, Lisieux or Argentan. We can expect an airborne landing in strength equal to that of the invasion. Such a landing will cut our communications with Normandy from both the north and to the west. While we defeated the Americans at one landing, I must make it clear again that the British have ripped open the front in their sector and are pouring inland. Both Rommel and Marcks, commanding the 84th Army Korps, are missing and are presumed to have been captured. Dollmann was killed by a pair of Allied Jabos only an hour before. The Panzer Lehr Division is the  _only_ reinforcement approaching the front and it cannot stop the British advance alone. I believe that the Allies have now expended the last of their airborne divisions. They wouldn't do so for only a diversion. We also recovered a copy of the American 7th Corps' operational orders from a sunken landing craft, showing us that their primary objective is the capture of Cherbourg. Normandy  _is_ the main invasion, not the Pas-de-Calais that we originally suspected. Mein Fuhrer, I must have Case Three. I need your decision at once'.

Von Rundstedt heard nothing for a moment. Then Hitler's strangely weary-like voice said flatly: 'Yes,  _Generalfeldmarschall_ , execute Case Three'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Originally, it was Paul von Hindenburg who coined the mocking name.


	39. Operation Royal Oak, June 7th: The Race to Reinforce

Whether the residue of drugs in Hitler's body had overridden his normal assertiveness or whether he had indeed thrown the dice with the ruthless certainty of earlier victories didn't really matter. Case Three kicked into high-action as fast as the orders could be relayed down the German chain-of-command. Every single panzer and good-quality divisions in OB West, along with any needed static divisions or independent units near the fighting, began to move towards the new front in Normandy. As a calculated risk, Hitler declared that the remaining static divisions would have to hold whatever further amphibious landings that might come. The Allies learned of the gamble through Ultra as soon as von Rundstedt did. Now the battle would be a race between the ability of the German divisions and other independent units to enter the battle rapidly and the ability of the Allies to land follow-on divisions into the lodgement.

At dawn on June 7th, the Allies had ten divisions ashore, with eight that had made and survived the initial landings on D-Day and the follow-on 49th (West Riding) and 51st (Highland) Infantry Divisions that began landing later that first day. The Germans had six divisions (soon to be seven with the Panzer Lehr Division) in action. Both sides had already written off divisions from their respective order-of-battles. The Americans were still in shock over the loss of the U.S 1st Infantry Division, and the Germans had lost almost all of the 716th Static Division except for the units that were attached to the 352nd Infantry Division. If simple logistics were everything, it would be the Germans who would win the race to reinforce their current forces in Normandy and achieve an overwhelmingly favourable correlation of forces against the Allies. The overhand movement of German forces was far more simpler than the transportation by ship of Allied forces across the English Channel and their landing and resupply over the beaches.


	40. Operation Royal Oak, June 7th: Running the Gauntlet

Allied foresight had already planned for a few complications to disrupt this German advantage. The pre-invasion air campaign had already wrecked much of the French railway system, upon which much of the German reinforcements depended on, especially for the long distance movement of armoured forces by rail. Tracked armoured vehicles require much more care and maintenance than wheeled vehicles, and will break down with distressing frequency when forced to make long road marches. To the ruin of the French railroads was now added a relentless attack on the road-bound German columns by both Allied Jabos and the French Resistance. The latter had been activated for just such a contingency. Among them, the recalcitrant and proud Bretons and Gascons were the most determined and ferocious. Only the 346th Infantry and the 17th Luftwaffe Field Divisions of the 15th Army's 81st Army Korps were able to slip into the battle without hindrance, announcing their presence with strong attacks on both the British 6th Airborne and the 51st (Highland) Infantry Divisions east of the Orne River on June 8th.

The rest had to travel between dusk and dawn in order to avoid air attacks that would slow their advance and inflict heavy losses before reaching Normandy. Of them all, the 2nd SS Panzer Division, which was stationed in Montauban, had the most horrific journey. Das Reich had been one of Hitler's favorite divisions, and he had personally chosen Montauban in Southern France for the division to recover from its huge losses on the Eastern Front. In April, the 2nd SS received 9,000 replacements from a collection of twelve different nationalities, including Volksdeutsche from Romania, Hungary and Alsatians, human material the Waffen-SS wouldn't even considered a few years ago. The officers and NCOs were all veterans of the fighting on the Eastern Front and quickly instilled an esprit de corps among their questionably Aryan replacements that would lead to an incredibly low-desertion rate. No officer, but the division commander, was older than thirty-four. They had been drawn from lower and middle-class backgrounds that would've disqualified them from the Heer, but they were men of natural talent that made the Waffen-SS at the regimental and lower levels without peer as warriors. The opposite, obtained at the division and corps level, where the lack of higher training and political preference were told.  _SS-Gruppenfuhrer_ (Major-General) Heinz Lammerding, Das Reich's commander, was a good example. Cold and colorless, his rise had been due to Himmler's favour. He showed little flair as a division commander and had made his mark hunting partisans with that mercilessness that seemed to excite Himmler so much. By D-Day, the 2nd SS Panzer Division had been rebuilt to a strength of 17,000 men. Unfortunately, the replacement equipment for the division's 2nd SS Panzer Regiment was slower in coming, but on June 6th, the regiment had fifty-three Panther Gs, thirty-seven Panzer IVHs, and thirteen StuG IIIG Assault Guns. Despite this, Das Reich's intact appearance in Normandy was considered with dread by the Allies. And for that reason, the 2nd SS Panzer Division would be the object of very special preparations.

Lammerding quickly found every alternative slammed in his face as he tried to prepare his division for the movement to Normandy. On D-Day, one of the best agents in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Southern France led his team to destroy most of Das Reich's fuel dumps. The Allied air forces destroyed all of the bridges over the Lorie River between Orleans and the Atlantic on June 7th. That night, the 'Dambusters' of the RAF's No. 617 Squadron dropped their 12,000-pound 'Tallboy' Earthquake Bombs, in their first use, onto the mouth of the Saumur-Parthenay Railroad Tunnel, which was the last high-speed means of passing the barrier of one of France's great rivers. The tunnel shuddered and then collapsed when one of the Tallboys bored through the hillside and exploded in the tunnel about 60ft below, completely blocking it. Another SOE agent launched her team and paralyzed the railroad system between Montauban and Toulouse, effectively stopping Das Reich's trains. This meant that the bridging equipment of the division's 2nd SS Panzer Pioneer Battalion was the only remaining mean for the 2nd SS Panzer Division to cross over the Lorie River.

With the railroads shut down, Lammerding was forced to put his division on the road under its own wheeled and tracked transportation. His fuel would give out before he reached the Loire River, but OB West had promised a fuel resupply convoy would meet them enroute. Das Reich's problems had just begun. Its road march took it into the small valleys, stone villages, and roadside granite outcroppings of the Gascony Region that both nature and the hand of man had seemingly designed for the ambush, the mine and the sniper. The hate-filled French Resistance and SOE teams made the most of their opportunities by making the Waffen-SS pay with blood for almost every mile. Tank commanders were either shot dead or wounded while standing up in their hatches, soft-skinned vehicles and their passengers were gunned down and left littering the road, and small detachments were wiped out. Day after day, the 2nd SS Panzer Division bled from a hundred cuts, and the losses began to equal those of a serious battle with regular troops. Throughout the region, the French had risen in open revolt and besieged German garrisons. Lammerding was in his element and immediately resorted to reprisal and terror. Somewhere along the way, his taste for blood and his hysterical messages to OKW prompted orders for him to engage in anti-partisan and terror operations against the French civil population. Both he and OKW appeared to have forgotten why Das Reich was on the road in the first place.

On June 10th, the bloodletting caught up with Lammerding in a little brown-colored stone Gascon village with slate roofs. An SOE team led by Captain C.D. Baker of the Scots Guards was waiting there, not for Lammerding especially, but for whatever element they could isolate by blocking the hairpin turns outside the town. The SOE team were reinforced with a few bands of Frenchmen armed with MAS-36 Bolt-Action Rifles and a Sten Mark II SMG or two. Just outside the village, the road turned sharply around a rocky cut in a hill. Sergeant John Patterson of the Royal Engineers watched an SdKfz 222 Light Armored Scout Car and two Tatra T57K Light Passenger Cars go by, then he twisted the detonator in his left hand, just as the first of several more armoured vehicles appeared. The blast triggered a rock fall that blocked the road. In the village, Captain Baker watched as the SdKfz 222 disappeared around a corner of the narrow main street. The two Tatra T57Ks were now helpless as fusillade of shots at close-range ripped through both of them, whipping around the occupants like rag dolls. The first one crashed into the village fountain and the second into the first. Lammerding managed to stagger out of the first car, pull out his Pistole 640(b)* and managed to kill one of the charging Frenchmen before being gunned down by a Frenchman using a Sten Mark II SMG. Baker was right behind him and took in the scene with one glance. Dead Waffen-SS general officers invariable extracted a bloody revenge, even from the grave. Within two minutes, Baker and his men were gone. So were the inhabitants of the village.

With both Lammerding and his Chief-of-Staff,  _SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer_  Albert Stuckler, now dead, command of the 2nd SS Panzer Division was now devolved upon  _SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer_ Christian Tychsen, the 34-year-old commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Regiment, whose shaven-bullet head and hideously-scarred chin made him a chilling sight. Recipient of both the Gold Wound Badge and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, the brave, battle-hardened and coldly-efficient Tychsen was everything that Lammerding wasn't. Above all, he was a good soldier not likely to be diverted from the main objective. He ordered that reprisals against the French civil population would only be limited to shooting up the towns and villages through which the division passed if it had met resistance in the area. French Resistance attacks didn't lessen, but Das Reich stopped wasting time going out of its way to deal with them.

Not everything went against the 2nd SS Panzer Division during its march north. An SAS (Special-Air-Service) detachment of fifty men in Willys MB Jeeps fitted with Vickers GO No. 2 Mark I Land Service LMGs on custom-built twin-mountings had been air-dropped on D-Day northwest of Limoges. Warned by signals intelligence of an important target of opportunity, they tried to intercept the OB West fuel resupply convoy, but Tychsen was much faster and swept it up into the protective arms of his division. He cornered the SAS detachment in the woods, killed forty of them, and the remaining ten fled deeper into the woods. He then authorized only one minor detour when the town of Tulle had risen to besiege its German garrison (which was 3rd Battalion/95th Security Regiment). A small kampfgruppe rode to the rescue and committed the usual atrocities after breaking the siege. Another potential detour was barely avoided the next day. A special vehicle had been separated from its convoy and taken a wrong turn down a country lane leading to the village of Oradour-sur-Vayre and was ambushed by the French Resistance. As the Frenchmen broke open one of the heavy wooden boxes in the truck, two gold bullion bars fell onto the road. They had unwittingly snatched the profits of certain senior Waffen-SS officers of Das Reich. They have buried enough over the centuries, but even they were momentarily agog at their windfall and didn't see the detachment from the 2nd SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion burst around the bend in the road to sweep them away with their autocannons and LMGs. The heavy wooden boxes and the two gold bullion bars that fell out were quickly reloaded onto a Bussing-NAG Type 500A Heavy Truck which rapidly returned to the safety of the main column. 1st Battalion/4th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment had mistaken the name of the village towards which the truck had disappeared and sped into Oradour-sur-Glane. The battalion commander ordered the entire population to assemble and accused them of hiding explosives. The women and children were marched into the local church and its doors locked by the SS-Panzergrenadiers. The men were lined up in the square. The officer was just about to give the order when he was suddenly recalled to his SdKfz 251/3D Communications Half-Track by his regimental commander, informing his subordinate that the missing special shipment had been recovered and he was to rejoin the main column immediately. As the last half-track raced out of the village, the men ran to the church to free their families.

The ambushes and the coordinated air strikes continued, but with the fuel carriers in tow, the 2nd SS Panzer Division cleared the Loire River over a Type-J43 Heavy Bridge constructed by an unidentified Bau-Pioneer Battalion attached to the First Army on the night of June 12th. Advance elements reached the front three days later. The SS laagered in the woods and along the hedgerows with a profound sense of relief that they would soon be fighting against proper soldiers instead of warding off the maddening stings from swarms of blood-sucking insects. As it was, they had suffered 1,500 casualties and 10% of their combat vehicles to breakdowns or combat losses.

Over the two to three weeks following D-Day, reserves from Army Group B, OB West and OKW have stumbled into Normandy, trailing similar experiences and losses. Their freshness had been bled away in the countless dashes to the doubtful safety of roadside ditches and woods, along with the numberless battle-drill reactions to ambushes by the French Resistance. But they arrived. Awe was the proper term to describe the Allies' reaction to the mass-movement of German forces. The red goose eggs on the map of France seemed to move closer to Normandy each day, despite Allied foreknowledge and countermeasures. Hitler had rolled for the whole game. Four panzer, four SS panzer, one SS panzergrenadier, three fallschirmjager, two luftwaffe field, four static, and twelve infantry divisions, along with an untold number of independent units, were on the road to Normandy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The Pistole 640(b) is the German designation for the Belgian-made FN M1935 Hi-Power Pistol.


	41. Operation Royal Oak, June 7th: The Allies Race

The Allies were immediately more successful in reinforcing their lodgement because of the follow-on divisions already at sea. Elements of the 49th (West Riding) and the 51st (Highland) Infantry Divisions had already come ashore on D-Day. They were followed the next day by both the British 7th Armoured Division and the patched-up U.S 29th Infantry Division (which included the uncommitted subordinate units of the U.S 1st Infantry Division). The 29th was attached to the British 30th Corps. The loss of Omaha Beach had left all the follow-on divisions of the U.S 5th Corps, the U.S 2nd Infantry and the U.S 2nd Armored Divisions*, without a home. Montgomery decided to feed them immediately through both Gold and Juno Beaches and move them to the right of Gold Beach where the U.S 5th Corps could resume its attack on the Omaha Beach sector, but from the land side.

On the surface, the German and Allied build-ups appeared to balance each other out. The Germans reasonably hoped to have about thirty-six divisions in Normandy by the end of June and early July, while the Allies hoped to have twenty-three ashore. The actual correlation of forces was far more lop-sided. Most of the Allied divisions were effectively twice the strength of the German divisions, especially the infantry. The Allied divisions would be entering the fight with their complete ToE (Tables-of-Equipment) and the ability to easily replace material losses as long as the logistics flow from Southern England was left unimpeded. The Germans would be entering the fight after suffering personnel and equipment losses equal to a major battle in their road marches. Most of OB West's supply dumps had been placed behind the 15th Army on the Pas-de-Calais and could only be moved from dusk till dawn in order to avoid air attack by the Allied Jabos. Concentration of Allied air attack on the German fuel and ball-bearing industries had multiplied the number of immobilized vehicles awaiting fuel or repairs. The Allies also had the Germans completely outclassed in firepower support. In addition to plentiful Allied artillery, the divisions could rely on unrelenting air support (limited only by the weather) and by the ships of both the Royal Navy and the U.S Navy that could hammer any German attack flat that was within the range of their guns, with the outer range being 18 miles. So thoroughly absent from the fighting was the Luftwaffe that the German ground troops composed an aircraft identification code: 'If it shows up during the day, it's the American Army Air Force; if it shows up at night, it's the Royal Air Force; and if it never shows up, it's the Luftwaffe'.

If the Germans on the road to the front had to contend with air attacks and ambush by the French Resistance, the Allied reinforcements had to deal with the weather, German shelling, and the remnants of German-made anti-landing obstacles as well as the intricacies of amphibious resupply. Had Luftflotte 3 been able to do half of what the Allied Jabos were doing to the German ground units, the continued reinforcement of the lodgement might've been crippled. The ordeal of elements of the U.S 2nd Armored Division's 67th Armored Regiment were typical. An  _LST-1_ -Class Tank Landing Ship bearing three tank companies and maintenance elements struck a mine off Gold Beach on the evening of June 9th. The explosion sent a shower of debris into the air as it broke the back of the landing craft. Said craft quickly listed and defied the U.S Navy's attempts to beach her and sank in eight minutes with all equipment aboard. Sixty-six men were killed or wounded; among the dead were two company commanders. Seventeen medium and fourteen light tanks, six half-tracks, three SPGs, and six jeeps went to the bottom. So strong was the explosion that the ship several hundred yards away, carrying the division commander and staff, was jarred and showered with debris. The delays and confusion attendant on such vast and complex logistics had their effects as well. The British 7th Armoured Division had landed to only discover that the transport ship carrying the vehicles of its infantry brigade had been sidetracked back across the English Channel to an English port.

The weather was the great wildcard for the Allies. The summer of 1944 was proving to have the worst English Channel weather in a century. The invasion had nearly been derailed by the storms of the fourth and fifth of June, and only Eisenhower's nerve to take the main chance and the skill of the navies had allowed them to leap through the very narrow weather window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The U.S 2nd Armored Division was originally attached to the U.S 19th Corps.


	42. Operation Royal Oak, June 7th: Villers-Bocage

Elements of the Panzer Lehr Division's 130th Panzer Reconnaissance Lehr Battalion (equipped with twenty-four SdKfz 234/2 Heavy Armored Scout Cars*, forty-four SdKfz 250/1 Personnel Carrier Half-Tracks, six SdKfz 250/3 Communications Half-Tracks, nine SdKfz 250/5 Observation/Communications Half-Tracks, eight SdKfz 250/7 Mortar Half-Tracks*, six SdKfz 250/8 Infantry Support Half-Tracks*, sixteen SdKfz 250/9 Reconnaissance Half-Tracks, six SdKfz 251/1D Personnel Carrier Half-Tracks, nine SdKfz 251/3D Communications Half-Tracks, seven SdKfz 251/7D Pioneer Half-Tracks, six SdKfz 251/9D Infantry Support Half-Tracks, two SdKfz 251/11D Telephone Cable-Layer Half-Tracks, and four SdKfz 251/17D Anti-Aircraft Half-Tracks) had just passed through Villers-Bocage on the way to Tilly-sur-Seulles at 1030.  _Oberst_ Gerhard had reached Villers-Bocage at the same time with the lead elements of his regiment's kampfgruppe built around 1st Battalion/6th Panzer Regiment. The drone of hundreds of aircraft engines had every eye looking upward as wave after wave of transports began spilling out their sticks of paratroopers. It quickly occurred to Gerhard that he was experiencing something unique, a ground and air meeting engagement. He had lived through more of the normal kind of meeting engagements on the Eastern Front than he cared to remember. Then it had been only two ground forces, both attacking towards each other and in ignorance of the other, the kind of situation that put a premium on quick wits and daring, one reason it was such a dreaded situation.

Only when they began their silken descent did the men of the 4th Parachute Brigade realized what had happened. The lights winking up at them from the columns of German vehicles began turning them into bloody bundles that would hit the ground like limp rag dolls. Kar98k Bolt-Action Rifles, Gewehr 43 Semi-Automatic Rifles, MP40s, MG42s, and the twenty-one SdKfz 251/21D Anti-Aircraft Half-Tracks* of 1st Battalion/901st Panzergrenadier Lehr Regiment in the kampfgruppe were all practically engaged in target practice. No one was shooting back at them. The bane of the paratrooper was that he was essentially defenceless until he hit the ground. The 11th Parachute Battalion suffered the most. Its drop-zone was the open fields south of the town, paralleling the road on which the Panzer Lehr Division had stopped. Dead British paratroopers dropped by the scores into those fields. North of Villers-Bocage, the 10th Parachute Battalion suffered as well in its descent, but was saved from the more thorough slaughter of its sister battalion by the fact that the Germans' field-of-fire were restricted by the buildings of Villers-Bocage. The 156th Parachute Battalion landed to the southwest of the town beyond the high-ground, Hill 213, which was their objective. Gerhard's subordinate commanders had slipped the leash on their men who surged across the fields to hunt down any survivors. It was hardly worth their effort to go after what was left of the 11th Parachute Battalion; the Germans counted 337 dead British paratroopers still attached to their harnesses in the fields. Aside from a few men that had been blown east into the wooded terrain, the loss of the battalion was complete. The Germans had also worked through the side streets and into the fields to pursue the survivors of the 10th Parachute Battalion as well, but the more broken and wooded ground saved many of the paratroopers who managed to hit the ground alive. Nevertheless, with 193 dead or wounded in the first five minutes of the operation, the 10th Parachute Battalion was badly hurt.

Only the 156th Parachute Battalion landed intact and was able to seize its objective of Hill 213 through which passed the road to Villers-Bocage. On the hill were a few buildings, including a post office and a bus stop. Within minutes, they were attacked from the west by a panzergrenadier company with Panther A in support. The Germans were confined to the road because of the two streams on either side. Two Panther As led the attack with the panzergrenadiers behind them*. Sergeant Willys Acton's section had occupied the post office with a Bren Mark III LMG* and two PIAT Mark Is. Acton had enlisted in 1933 and had volunteered from one of the Guards regiments to join an even more elite outfit, the paras. For him, the spit and polish of the Guards had only one useful application: keep your weapons clean and perfect as any Guardsmen's breastplate. As the Germans pressed forward, pushing Able Company back up the hill, the first Panther A clanked up towards the post office. Acton pushed his men into the cellar of the building. The first Panther A swiveled its 75mm KwK 42 L/70 Cannon and put a HE round into the building, sending a shower of stamps and plaster out the windows. The two Panther As moved on, and Acton rushed his men out of the cellar. The Bren gunner setup his piece. Every link of ammo was carefully oiled and ready, as Acton had beat into them. He fired into the unsuspecting panzergrenadiers who were separated from the Panther As by a dozen meters. The Germans left a tangle of bodies in either Feldgrau uniforms or wearing M1944 Splinter-A camo pattern smocks* in the road as they scampered back down the hill to find cover. Acton rushed out of the post office with his two PIAT gunners in tow and ran up behind the last Panther A. One of the PIAT gunners knelt and fired an 83mm spring-propelled shape charge High-Explosive/Anti-Tank round. There was a shower of sparks and the rear engine compartment exploded, with flames spurting out of the grilles on the back deck. The hatches flew open as the German tank crew tried to escape. Acton was on them with his Enfield No. 2 Mark I Revolver, shooting one of them and taking the rest prisoner. With the remaining PIAT gunner, he stalked the remaining Panther A whose escape route was now blocked by its burning companion. Another shot at close range and the Panther A began to burn as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Known as the 'Puma' by the Allies, the SdKfz 234 was considered by many experts alike as the best armored scout car in WW2. The SdKfz 234/2 variant was armed with a 50mm KwK 39/1 L/60 Cannon and a MG42.
> 
> *The SdKfz 250/7 is armed with the 81.4mm Granatwerfer 34/1 Medium Mortar and two MG34s for close-support.
> 
> *The SdKfz 250/9 is armed with the 75mm KwK 51 L/24 Cannon.
> 
> *The SdKfz 251/9D is armed with the 75mm KwK 37 L/24 Cannon.
> 
> *The Panzer Lehr Division was the ONLY division equipped with SdKfz 251/21Ds instead of the standard SdKfz 251/17D in the half-track-mounted Panzergrenadier Battalion (Both Heer and SS). The SdKfz 251/21D was armed with three 20mm MG151/20 Autocannons on a triple mount. However, with a combined rate of fire of 2,000 RPM, it could fire off its full load of 3000 rounds in just 90 seconds.
> 
> *Analysis showed that the Panther tanks were ill-suited to urban combat unless they were closely supported by panzergrenadiers.
> 
> *The Bren Mark III LMG was issued only to the East and the Airborne Forces.
> 
> *Another unique feature of the Panzer Lehr Divisions was that all of its panzergrenadiers were dressed in the grey, short, double-breasted tunic similar to the ones worn by assault gun units instead of the standard M1942 tunic worn by other German Heer units.


	43. Operation Royal Oak, June 7th: Aunay-sur-Odon and Thury-Harcourt

The slaughter at Villers-Bocage was repeated at the other drop-zones around Aunay-sur-Odon and Thury-Harcourt, as the 1st Parachute Brigade fell upon the other columns of the Panzer Lehr Division. At Aunay-sur-Odon, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Parachute Battalions and the Divisional Headquarters had landed north, east and south of the town in the open fields separated by the spokes of roads that led into Aunay-sur-Odon. To their grief, those roads were filled with vehicles of the Panzer Lehr Division. The massacre of the 11th Parachute Battalion at Villers-Bocage was reenacted three times for the 1st Parachute Brigade. Even the commander of the British 1st Airborne Division, Major-General Robert 'Roy' Urquhart, was killed in the air and his body was later found in a vegetable garden located on the outskirts of the town. Brigadier-General Sir Gerald Lathbury, commander of the 1st Parachute Brigade was killed as he tried to escape through the tall cornfields from a row of Panzer IVHs and SdKfz 251 Half-Track variants that were beating the survivors like an Indian tiger hunt. Nowhere was more than a platoon was able to rally itself. A few stragglers stumbled into the wooded safety of the Red-du-Bois, located southwest of the town. In an hour, the 1st Parachute Brigade had lost 732 men killed or wounded, another 306 were taken prisoner, and ceased to exist.

The Poles fell with more luck southwest of Thury-Harcourt and landed almost on top of the Panzer Lehr Division's 130th Veterinary Lehr Company. These Germans tried to escape rather than attack. They merely jammed their vehicles and horse carts on the road. Sosabowski's 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade had fallen into three tight drop-zones with very little dispersion. The former graduate of the Higher Military School in Warsaw* had his men rushed upon the stalled German convoy and began killing Germans. Most of them had already had the good sense to abandon their vehicles and horse carts and flee back into Thury-Harcourt with the Polish paratroopers baying after them. That was all the encouragement the Germans needed to keep running over the Orne River bridge so the town was quickly cleared. In less than an hour, Sosabowski had taken his objective, killed or captured 50 Germans for the loss of only seventeen of his men, and put his objective in a all-round defence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Today, its now called the National Defence University of Warsaw.


	44. Operation Royal Oak, June 7th: Evrecy

A German FlaK battery from the 431st FlaK Regiment at Evrecy was the only opposition to the 1st Airlanding Brigade's assault on the town. For the slow plywood AS.51 Horsa I Gliders, it was more than enough. The German gunners were adept and cool, pulling out of the sky at least fifteen of the fragile gliders and at least a dozen transports in their slow, straight approaches. Luftwaffe  _Oberleutnant_ Wolfgang Priller was amazed how easily the gliders splintered and disintegrated, spilling bodies and equipment into the sky. His battery of four 88mm FlaK 41 L/71 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Guns and three 20mm FlaK 38 L/56 Autocannons couldn't fire fast enough at all the targets that kept landing around the town.

Within minutes, the targets were gone from the sky. Scores had landed for every one shot down. Now, the British organized their battalions and pressed into the town from both east and north. Companies from both the 2nd South Staffordshire and the 7th King's Own Scottish Borderers Battalions closed in on Priller's FlaK battery. The 1st Border Battalion setup defensive positions south of Evrecy. Priller ordered an immediate retreat. Luftwaffe FlaK units without infantry support were easy game at times like this. His battery ran into the 1st Border Battalion's ambush south of the town. Priller survived simply because he was the last man out of Evrecy, having made sure that every single one of his men had escaped. The enemy fished him out of a stream and marched him and the other POWs back into the town.

With Evrecy as its apex, the British should've had a good grip by now on a large triangle of territory into which the ground forces could flow. Instead, the stout door they had designed had been smashed at both Villers-Bocage and Aunay-sur-Odon, leaving only the Poles as a lonely outpost at Thury-Harcourt. The destruction of both the 1st and 4th Parachute Brigades had fallen upon them with such speed that barely a hint of it had reached outward. Only the Poles and the 1st Airlanding Brigade had reported success. Leaving only the South Staffords holding the town, Brigadier-General Philip Hicks assembled the rest of his brigade on the road as they headed south to Aunay-sur-Odon. Luckily, the jeeps towing the brigade's twelve 6-Pounder Mark III L/43 Anti-Tank Guns had survived the glider landings and he put them near the head of the column and set off. It was almost noon.

Along the forward edge of the battlefield, reconnaissance regiments of three of the British 2nd Army's divisions crossed Highway 13, almost two hours after the air drop, and far behind schedule. They were lucky to have begun that soon. Bad weather had delayed the landing of the British 7th Armoured Division's 22nd Armoured Brigade (commanded by Brigadier-General William R.N. Hinde), the main exploitation force for Operation Royal Oak.

On the right part of the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars Reconnaissance Regiment was the 22nd Armoured Brigade's 1st and 5th Royal Tank Regiments, the 4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) and the 1st (Motorized) Battalion/Prince Consort's Own Rifle Brigade with the 5th Royal Horse Artillery Battalion (equipped with Sexton II SPGs) towards Tilly-sur-Seulles and Villers-Bocage beyond. Much of Major-General Sir George Erskine's division hadn't arrived yet, including the 131st Infantry Brigade, and the independent 56th Infantry Brigade from the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division was attached in its place instead. Next in line was the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division's 7th Reconnaissance Regiment (17th Duke of York's Royal Canadian Hussars) ahead of the Canadian-Scots of the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade which was still supported by the tanks of the 27th Armoured Regiment (Sherbrooke Fusiliers), and the Canadian 8th Infantry Brigade in echelon to the rear. Out of Caen rode the British 3rd Infantry Division's 3rd Royal Northumberland Fusiliers Reconnaissance Regiment as it headed towards Evrecy. Behind them rode the much-reduced 8th Armoured Brigade and behind them marched Brigadier-General J.O. Cunningham's 9th Infantry Brigade, which was still exhilarated from their conquest of Caen the night before.

An hour later, Bayerlein was driving past columns of British POWs of the two parachute brigades to meet with Gerhard in Villers-Bocage. The fields he passed were dotted with fluttering white silk parachutes still attached to dead British paratroopers. His own men seemed to be in excellent spirits. It had been a lucky day so far. An apple had fallen out of the sky and right into his division's lap. Gerhard had more good news. He had learned from the POWs that a large ground operation was on its way to link up with the British and Polish paratroopers. And one of their objectives was Villers-Bocage. They pored over their map. The unexpected halt had allowed most of the Panzer Lehr Division's combat power to concentrate between Villers-Bocage and Aunay-sur-Odon. Bayerlein realized he could strike with a closed fist at what ever was coming towards Villers-Bocage.

The advance of the British 7th Armoured Division had gone well for some five miles until the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars Reconnaissance Regiment bumped into the 130th Panzer Reconnaissance Lehr Battalion on the outskirts of Tilly-sur-Seulles. The tank of the 1st Troop leader was brewed up. The Hussars deployed and called in a battalion from the 56th Infantry Brigade to clear the town. The Germans stayed in contact long enough to delay the British for an hour before they slipped out of the town. Similar delays in the thick hedgerow country slowed the British 7th Armoured Division down on the road towards Villers-Bocage. Erskine planned to send the 1st Royal Tank Regiment to occupy the high-ground about a mile or so north of the town and the 5th Royal Tank Regiment on a similar mission south of the town. Both the 4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) and the 56th Infantry Brigade would advance through Villers-Bocage itself. Unknowingly, he was advancing into the jaws of the trap set by both Bayerlein and Gerhard. They could tactically read a map as well as Erskine and had the forewarning that the British officer hadn't. The remaining eighty-seven Panther As of 1st Battalion/6th Panzer Regiment, the Flakpanzer Platoon and the HQ of the 130th Panzer Lehr Regiment, along with the entire 901st Panzergrenadier Lehr Regiment, were on the same two pieces of high-ground selected by Erskine for his two tank regiments. In the woods just north of Villers-Bocage were the forty-five Tiger I Heavy Tanks of the 101st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion. Echeloned back towards Aunay-sur-Odon were the ninety-nine Panzer IVHs of 2nd Battalion/130th Panzer Lehr Regiment, the entire 902nd Panzergrenadier Lehr Regiment, and the 130th Panzerjager Lehr Battalion.

The 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars had managed to push into Villy-Bocage, which was a hamlet that was barley a mile from Villers-Bocage, when the Germans in their front seemed to melt away. There was still no contact with the paratroopers. Lieutenant-Colonel The Viscount Cranley*, the commander of the 4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), was worrying and he had wanted a thorough reconnaissance of the area. He was told by his brigade commander to push on regardless. There should've been patrols from the British 1st Airborne Division at the very least and there was only a little gunfire to the south of the town. A troop of the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars drove warily into Villers-Bocage, followed by the 4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) and behind them in trucks was the 2nd South Wales Borderers Battalion from the 56th Infantry Brigade. Cranley was at the head of his column in a Humber Mark II Scout Car, standing up in the hatch, when a Humber Mark IV Armoured Car of the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars in front of him exploded as it passed a side street. Out of the street lumbered a Tiger I with branches and leaves for camouflage. It pivoted itself to face down the street, and with its 88mm KwK 36 L/56 Cannon pointed right at Cranley (who shit himself). But the Viscount's driver was faster than the Tiger I's gunner and accelerated forward and between the German heavy tank and the nearest French house. As they passed, Cranley read the red-outlined number '200' on the left side of the tank's turret. The gunner fired anyway and destroyed the first Cromwell* in line. Behind the first Tiger I, another appeared and turned right to shoot up the 8th King's Own Royal Irish Hussars Reconnaissance Regiment. The Desert Rats had stumbled into the trap setup by the T-Rex of the tank world, the 57-ton Tiger I. The most-feared tank in the world, with its high-velocity 'long as a telephone pole' 88mm KwK 36 L/56 Cannon could punch holes through any available Allied tank with ease. Its 120mm frontal armour was proof against anything the Allies had except for the 17-Pounder. Its only two drawbacks were both a certain clumsiness and mechanical unreliability.

Tiger #200 grounded down the street, brewing up one Cromwell after another. Two more followed. The Cromwells with either their useless 6-Pounder Mark III L/43 Cannons or their QF 75mm L/43 Cannons were in a deathtrap. There was enough room for the Tiger Is to drive past them, but not enough for the Cromwells to turn around. One after another, the tanks of B Squadron burst into flames as the 88mm KwK 36 L/56 Cannons tore holes through their inadequate armour. Here and there, a London Yeomanry tank backed into a side street, but Tiger #200 or one of the following Tiger Is would calmly swivelled its turret and destroyed it. The Cromwell Mark 3 commanded by Captain Peter Dyas backed off the street and into a front garden as Tiger #200 passed. Dyas' gunner (who had to relieve himself earlier) was facing forward when the second Tiger I passed, in effect crossing the Cromwell's T. The gunner fired an AP round at the Tiger I's engine compartment. The German heavy tank lurched to the side and crashed into a building just before the entire tank crew was able to successfully bail out of their vehicle before smoke and flames erupted from the engine compartment. Dyas was to have the only such piece of luck in the 4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) that day.

Another dozen Tiger Is had emerged at the same time from the woods to attack the rear of the London Yeomanry on the outskirts of the town. The range was so close that the first salvo left a dozen British vehicles burning, extinguishing B Squadron in thirty seconds. A second Tiger I company followed the first and broke off to strike for the road leading into Villy-Bocage. C Squadron was manoeuvring wildly to escape the Tiger Is' close-range killing. The second Tiger I company cut the road between them and swept upon the 2nd South Wales Borderers Battalion's truck column. The firing ahead in the town had warned the Welshmen to dismount and deploy on either side of the road or they would've been destroyed along with their transportation. The battalion's six 6-Pounder Mark IV L/43 Anti-Tank Guns fired and watched their AP rounds bounce off the Tiger Is' 120mm frontal armour and then quickly lost the gunnery duel to the 88mm KwK 36 L/56 Cannons. One AT gun crew had been lucky enough to fire an AP round at an impossibly point-blank range and see one of the Tiger Is stopped and burn. An HE round from another Tiger I sent the AT gun spinning backwards and scattering its crew. The other Tiger I rode up and down the road over the trucks and other vehicles in the column. The South Wales Borderers pulled back where they could or slipped into the dense-protection of the hedgerows. From there, they fought back with PIAT Mark Is and the two surviving 6-Pounder Mark IV L/43 Anti-Tank Guns. Without panzergrenadier support, the Tiger Is couldn't advance very far in such country and pulled back towards the town, where forty-three Cromwells and thirty-seven other vehicles of both the 4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) and the 8th King's Own Royal Irish Hussars Reconnaissance Regiment burned. Viscount Cranley had survived to be taken prisoner. As he was being interrogated, he asked who was in Tiger #200 that had trapped his unit in the street. The Germans who were present all grinned and said at once: 'Michael Wittmann!'*

To the north of Villers-Bocage, the 5th Royal Tank Regiment was stopped in its tracks by heavy tank fire that destroyed its lead five tanks. Attempts to manoeuvre around the Germans had failed, leaving more tanks burning in the small fields. A line of Panther As burst out of a nearby wood line. Fire from the 5th Royal Tanks was accurate, but it only stopped two tanks. The Panther As were well armoured and easily resisted most frontal shots from Allied tanks. Their high-velocity KwK 42 L/70 Cannons furthermore made short work of the Sherman Vs and Cromwells in front of them. Now the rest surged on stopping for quick engagements which picked off more and more British tanks. More Panther As and panzergrenadiers mounted in half-tracks were seen manoeuvring. The 5th Royal Tanks had no infantry support and the battalions of the 56th Infantry Brigade were all on foot, except for the 2nd South Wales Borderers Battalion and couldn't have keep up with the tanks. Now without infantry support, the 5th Royal Tanks would be at the mercy of the panzergrenadiers in the hedgerows. Having lost eighteen more Cromwells, the 5th Royal Tank Regiment broke off from the action and withdrew in the direction of Villy-Bocage. There they found the survivors of both the 4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) and the 2nd South Wales Borderers Battalion who were ready to bolt back to Tilly-sur-Seulles. All it would take was a sharp push by the Germans.

That is just what Bayerlein had in mind. His trap had worked with the second apple to fall into his division's lap that day. Now he could finish the job. He aimed his attack straight up the road to Villy-Bocage, led by the 101st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion which was reinforced by the 130th Field Replacement Lehr Battalion. The northern kampfgruppe (which contained 1st Battalion/6th Panzer Regiment, the HQ and the Flakpanzer Platoon of the 130th Panzer Lehr Regiment, and the 901st Panzergrenadier Lehr Regiment) would strike behind Villy-Bocage to cut off the enemy's retreat. The southern kampfgruppe (which contained 2nd Battalion/130th Panzer Lehr Regiment, the 902nd Panzergrenadier Lehr Regiment, and the 130th Panzerjager Lehr Battalion) had been equally successful against the 1st Royal Tank Regiment and would form the other arm of the pincer that would cut off the British. At 1630, the attack began with heavy fire support from the Panzer Lehr Division's 130th Panzer Artillery Lehr Regiment. Many vehicles of the 22nd Armoured Brigade's area were destroyed. Hull-down positions were very hard to find in the dense woods, orchards and unfavorable ground. The Tiger Is attacked down the road and fields on either side while supported by the panzergrenadiers of the 130th Field Replacement Lehr Battalion. A Squadron of the 1st Royal Tanks fought a rearguard action, supported by Charlie Company from the 2nd Essex Battalion. To the north, the 5th Royal Tanks along with two companies of the 2nd Gloucestershire Battalion was trying to hold off the Germans who were throwing in one sharp attack after another. The road back to Tilly-sur-Seulles was crowded with soft-skinned support vehicles, with many of them set afire by German artillery. The Sexton II SPGs of the 5th Royal Horse Artillery Battalion were using up their ammo in support of the hard-pressed tanks and infantry. The German artillery guns found them eventually and destroyed several Sexton IIs before they could displace to another position.

The Tiger Is were slowed by the rearguard of the 1st Royal Tanks and the 2nd Essex Battalion in the hedgerows, but weren't stopped. They steadily advance but left one after another of the heavy tanks burning or knocked out in the sunken roads or small fields. The panzergrenadiers took heavy losses as they experienced British tenacity in the defence. Corporal Bill Dawson of the 2nd Essex Battalion was a patient man, most of his mates though he was almost cold-blooded. He held the bead on the panzergrenadier squad working its way along the edge of the hedges till they were so close enough that none could escape. He pulled the trigger on his Bren Mark II LMG and swept the file of ten panzergrenadiers into the grass. One moaned and tried to crawl away. Dawson waited for the next group. That was the undoing of the British 7th Armoured Division. If the Tiger Is had pressed faster, the division would've withdrawn faster and escaped the Panther As slipping around the flanks of the division.

At 1715, the northern kampfgruppe, which had swung around the flank of the delaying 5th Royal Tanks, cut the road to Tilly-sur-Seulles. The Panther As burst upon the backed up supply trains of the British 7th Armoured Division that was in one entire column.  _Obersoldat_ Erich Schmidt of the 901st Panzergrenadier Lehr Regiment manned the MG42 on a SdKfz 251/1D Half-Track that accompanied the Panther As recalled:

'I fired into one truck after another. They just sat there, trapped on the road. I remember the crews spilling out and running either into the ditches or fields and then crumple. The Panther As just rolled over the trucks and seemed to chase the English into the woods, orchards and fields'.

The 3rd Royal Horse Artillery Battalion (equipped with 25-Pounder Mark II L/28 Field Guns/Howitzers) became the special target of the Panther As' cannons. Trucks are soft kills, but 25-Pounders were special. They could kill tanks as well as any anti-tank gun. Now they were just as helpless as the trucks. Now the guns and their Morris-Commercial C8 Mark III Field Artillery Tractors (FATs) disintergrated as the Panther As concentrated their fire onto them. No. 27 Ammunition Limbers were also added to the carnage. At the tail of the column behind a turn in the road, two 25-Pounder Mark II L/28 Field Guns/Howitzers were unlimbered and run up against a protecting bulk of a hedge. The loaders were just about to load HE shells into the 25-Pounders when a SdKfz 251/1D Half-Track suddenly burst out of the hedge to their left, spraying the crews with its MG42. Schmidt saw the gun crews twist and fall in the bullet stream, with the 25-Pounder shells falling to the ground. The half-track drove between the trucks and the 25-Pounders, shooting at the rest of the gun crews. The other panzergrenadiers were firing over the sides of the half-track at anyone they could see. The English weren't going to give up their guns so easily. An officer dashed towards the half-track with an No. 36M Hand Grenade, but Schmidt quickly gunned him down with a quick burst from his MG42 before the officer could throw it. The panzergrenadiers quickly dismounted as another SdKfz 251/1D Half-Track drove up and helped to overwhelm the remaining gunners*.

Both Gerhard and  _Major_ Alfred Markowski, commander of 1st Battalion/6th Panzer Regiment, surveyed the chaos and destruction from their respective command tanks, pleased with the day's work. Of the eighty-nine Panther As Markowski had available that day, he had lost two of them to British paratroopers and another eight more to smash up an enemy tank regiment and close his half of the trap. Now everything depended on  _Oberstleutnant_ Prinz Wilhelm von Schonburg-Waldenburg, commander of 2nd Battalion/130th Panzer Lehr Regiment, to close the other half of the trap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *His real name is William Arthur Bampfylde Onslow, 6th Earl of Onslow.
> 
> *The British 7th Armoured Division used five different Cromwell variants in Normandy:
> 
> Cromwell Mark 3: armed with the 6-Pounder Mark III L/43 Cannon.
> 
> Cromwell Mark 4: armed with the QF 75mm L/43 Cannon.
> 
> Cromwell Mark 5: also armed with the QF 75mm L/43 Cannon.
> 
> Cromwell Mark 6: armed with the QF 95mm L/18.65 Howitzer.
> 
> Cromwell Mark 7: armed with the QF 75mm L/43 Cannon.
> 
> *When Wittmann went to Normandy with his battalion, coming with him was his Tiger crew who fought alongside him on the Eastern Front:
> 
> SS-Sturmmann Gunther Jonas: Radio Operator/Bow Gunner  
> SS-Unterscharfuhrer Walter Muller: Driver  
> SS-Unterscharfuhrer Balthasar (Bobby) Woll: Gunner  
> SS-Sturmmann Gunter Boldt: Loader
> 
> *Schmidt was later awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class.


	45. Operation Royal Oak, June 7th: The Canadians at Tournay-sur-Odon

He was doing just that. The weight of ninety-nine Panzer IVHs of 2nd Battalion/130th Panzer Lehr Regiment and the entire 902nd Panzergrenadier Lehr Regiment had the 1st Royal Tank Regiment at a grim disadvantage in numbers. The British had been pressed back by the weight of the German attack, but its Cromwells were a match for the Panzer IVHs (except in both frontal armour and firepower). The Desert Rates expertly fell back to one defilade position after another, long enough to fire and brew up one or two tanks and a few half-tracks. Only the constant flanking pressure of the panzergrenadiers jimmied them out of each position before they could do more damage. By the time the 1st Royal Tanks had drawn back to a line parallel with the main column, they had traded eight Cromwells for twelve Panzer IVHs and a dozen half-tracks. Most of the pressure on them now seemed to shift from the tanks to the panzergrenadiers. The Panzer IVHs were skirting the 1st Royal Tanks to swing around the open flank to link up with Markowski's Panther As.

They had crossed over the Odon River and found an open road to the enemy's rear at Tournay-sur-Odon when the first three Panzer IVHs were struck by the sides. All hell broke loose as concentrated fire swept over the head of the column as fifteen Sherman Vs of the 27th Armoured Regiment (Sherbrooke Fusiliers) cut through the center of the German column as they fired up and down the road. In their speed to close the trap on the British 7th Armoured Division, they had driven across the front of the armoured advance for the Canadian 9th Infantry Brigade. The Germans recoiled off the road and into the hedgerows and small fields in small group of vehicles, but the head of their column was trapped by the Sherbrooke Fusiliers who left eight Panzer IVHs and two half-tracks burning in the sunken lane.

The 1st Highland Light Infantry of Canada Battalion was attacking with the Sherman Vs and followed them into the maze of small fields and hedgerows to hunt for the Germans. The fighting became a hundred little engagements as squads and individual tanks hunted each other. The 1st North Nova Scotia Highlanders Battalion entered the battle from the west by lapping around the Caen Highway to take the Germans from the flank. The ferocity of the Canadian attack pushed the Germans east and away from the British 7th Armoured Division, which was struggling to get out of the trap. The Canadian 8th Infantry Brigade, led by the Sherman Vs of the 10th Armoured Regiment (Fort Garry Horse), came into the line to the west of the Canadian 9th Infantry Brigade and made contact with the retreating Desert Rats. The Canadians were now holding the open door for the British 7th Armoured Division. With the road to Tilly-sur-Seulles shut, Erskine ordered a retreat down the Caen Highway, and his wounded units were eventually able to break contact with the slow-pursuing Tiger Is and straggled through the Canadian lines. By the time Bayerlein realized that the southern jaw of his trap had been hammered back, the Desert Rats had oozed out of his grip.

It was the sad husk of a great division that had escaped. Only three Cromwells and thirty-seven infantrymen were all that survived of the rearguard's tank squadron and infantry company. The 4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) had been for all intents and purposes wiped out as a fighting unit and was represented by only four tanks that had managed to escape from Villers-Bocage. The battered 1st and 5th Royal Tank Regiments and the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars Reconnaissance Regiment were down to fewer than sixty tanks and other vehicles. The British 7th Armoured Division had lost 117 tanks out of almost 180 with which they had begun that day. Personnel losses, including the independent 56th Infantry Brigade, was about 2,700 men. While half the losses had been in the supply trains and artillery, the loss of experienced tank crews had been more crippling. Few of the survivors of brewed up tanks were able to escape with the division. The Desert Rats would be out of action for a long time.


	46. Operation Royal Oak, June 7th: Advance from Evrecy

As the Canadians entered the battle in the centre, the 1st Airlanding Brigade emerged out of the dense cluster of villages south of Evrecy and headed for Aunay-sur-Odon. At the same time, the British 3rd Infantry Division's attached 8th Armoured Brigade cleared Evercy and followed in their wake. At 1612, the advance guard of the 1st Airlanding Brigade crossed the small river that fed downstream a few hundred metres into the Odon River outside of Aunay-sur-Odon. There was some question next as to which force was surprised more, the 7th King's Own Scottish Borderers Battalion in the lead or the 130th Panzerjager Lehr Battalion, waiting on the outskirts of Aunay-sur-Odon. German battle drill took the opening point. The battalion had been waiting for a momentary order to join the rest of the battle and was ready, and their commander was quick. The thirty-one Jagdpanzer IV Tank Destroyers and twelve Marder IIIM Tank Destroyers shook out of their assembly area and attacked with four Marder IIIMs and nine Jagdpanzer IVs in the first wave.

Said wave rolled over the lead platoons of the Scottish Borderers and crossed the river, scattering the first company of the battalion. Then they ran into the twelve 6-Pounder Mark III L/43 Anti-Tank Guns that Hicks had placed near the head of the column. One! Two! Three!...two Marder IIIMs and one Jagdpanzer IVs staggered under the anti-tank ambush and burned. The rest backed up and found excellent defilade positions from which to return fire. The 1st Airlanding Brigade deployed itself among the orchards and hedgerows to either side of Saint-Agnan-le-Malherbe, trying to work around the Germans with no success. Within an hour, the 8th Armoured Brigade arrived and attacked straight down the road with a heavy artillery concentration from the brigade's attached 147th Field Artillery Battalion, Royal Artillery. The Sherman Vs of the 24th Lancers led the way, followed by the 13th/18th Royal Hussars which were at half-strength from their ordeals of June 6th. First-Lieutenant Herbert Ronson and his crew of the 24th Lancers had to bail out of their tank when it was hit in the engine compartment by a camouflaged Marder IIIM. Peering out of a ditch they dove into, they watched the rest of their unit crashed into the German position, leaving a trail of burning tank destroyers. They reassembled and tried to bounce the river, but were stopped by the rest of the 130th Panzerjager Lehr Battalion which was positioned on the other side. Firing from good positions, the German gunners avenged the slaughter of its 1st Company. Now it was the turn of the Germans to give the British a good stonk as the Panzer Lehr Division's 130th Panzer Artillery Lehr Regiment chimed in.

The Lancers and the Royal Hussars lost five tanks trying to force the river. Bayerlein was on the point of committing his last reserve, the eight Tiger Is and nine StuG IIIG Assault Guns of the attached 316th Heavy Panzer Company, when the British withdrew back to Saint-Agnan-le-Malherbe. Brigadier-General J.O. Cunningham's 9th Infantry Brigade arrived an hour later and was fed into the line to the east until its patrols made contact with the Poles in Thury-Harcourt. Operation Royal Oak was finished.


	47. Operation Royal Oak, June 7th: On the Flanks

While the British and the Canadians had eliminated the surviving German strongpoints along Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches, the fighting on the flanks had been heavy and without gain. East of the Orne River, the British 6th Airborne and the 51st (Highland) Infantry Divisions were successful only in linking up with isolated paratrooper units. They failed to advance against the remnants of the 716th Static Division which was reinforced by the equally second-rate 711th Static Division (commanded by  _Generalleutnant_ Josef Reichert) who pulled out of their beach defences and marched inland.

Originally raised in May 1941, the 711th was equipped only for occupation duties and was sent to France as a component of the 15th Army. Originally, the division was placed along the demarcation line between German-occupied France and Vichy France, but was later moved along the French coast to serve in the Atlantic Wall, eventually settling as part of the 15th Army's left flank in a sector between the Orne and Seine Rivers. The division consisted of the 731st and 744th Grenadier Regiments, each with three battalions. However, somewhere during the spring of 1943, the 731st Grenadier Regiment's 1st Battalion was transferred to the Eastern Front. To makeup for this loss, the 781st Ost Battalion was brought in and was designated as 1st Battalion/731st Grenadier Regiment. The division's 1711th Artillery Regiment was badly understrength with only just two battalions; the 1st was equipped with sixteen 76.2mm FK 297(r) Field Guns*, and the second with sixteen 155mm sFH 414(f) Heavy Field Howitzers. When the 711th Static Division was ordered to move to Normandy under Case Three, the 1255th Army Coastal Artillery Battalion (equipped with eighteen 155mm K420(f) Heavy Artillery Guns* and four 155mm K331(f) Field Guns) was attached to the divisional headquarters. Although the division had no panzerjager battalion, but its 711th Panzerjager Company had twelve 75mm PaK 40 L/46 Anti-Tank Guns.

They were reinforcements for the heart of the German defence, Kampfgruppe von Luck. That and how they fought surprisingly well was a testament to the German Heer's ability to transform even second-rate material into an acceptable if not good combat unit. Nightfall hid the arrival (after forced marches) of the lead units of the 346th Infantry and the 17th Luftwaffe Field Divisions.

The 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division had been severely tested that day as well. An early morning attack by both the 69th and 231st Infantry Brigades had been checked almost immediately by the Germans. The 352nd Infantry Division had placed the remnants of the 726th Grenadier Regiment, the 439th Ost Battalion, 2nd Company/716th Pioneer Battalion, and 3rd Battalion/1716th Artillery Regiment into Port-en-Bessin, supported by the 7th Nebelwerfer Brigade. Everywhere the Northumbrians seemed on the point of breaking through, they were thrown back by vicious counterattacks by both SS-Kampfgruppe Wunsche and SS-Kampfgruppe Meyer of the 12th SS Panzer Division being held in reserve. German artillery from these two divisions energetically shelled the beaches, delaying the landings of both the 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division and the U.S 29th Infantry Division. The Royal Navy had done its part to change the balance by pouring naval gunfire down the length of the German positions at right angles to the coast. Still, the Germans hung on. As night fell, the 12th SS Panzer Division began slipping out of the line and moved to an assembly point in the Cerisy Forest west of Balleroy. They had been pulled out unexpectedly. Kurt Meyer waited until the next morning hours to receive his orders.

As darkness and exhaustion put an end to the day's fighting, the British and the Canadians had cause for severe dismay. Even Montgomery couldn't find a sliver lining in the outcome of Operation Royal Oak. His plan to retrieve at one stroke of the Americans at Omaha Beach could only be termed as near-disaster because of the more awful and complete disaster barely being avoided. The only advantage that was gained had been the doubling of the lodgement which now ran from Bayeux to the north of Tilly-sur-Seulles, then Tournay-sur-Odon, Saint-Agnan-le-Malherbe, and finally to Thury-Harcourt. But the cost had been appalling. It was sinking in that not only had the British 7th Armoured Division had been badly-mauled but that the British 1st Airborne Division had been badly-gutted as well, and would have to be written off. The slaughter of two of the best veteran divisions in the British Army in one day had thrown a pall over the chain-of-command all the way up from both the British 1st and 30th Corps to the 21st Army Group and finally to the Chiefs of the Imperial General Staff. Churchill was stunned at the defeat, not having so bitter a taste since both Tobruk and Singapore two years ago. The British Government would be hard-pressed to defend this day in Parliament. In this fifth year of the war, Great Britain had scrapped the bottom of her manpower barrel. There were no significant replacements for losses at this rate. Almost 10,000 men had been killed, wounded or captured, three times the rate of the assault on the beaches the day before. The British couldn't afford many more days like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The FK 297(r) was the German designation for the Soviet 76.2mm M1939 (USV) L/42 Divisional Field Gun being used in the field artillery role.
> 
> *The K420(f) was the German designation for the French Canon de 155mm L modele 1916 Saint-Chamond Heavy Artillery Gun.


	48. Operation Royal Oak, June 7th: The American Sector

For Rommel, it had been to say the least, an intriguing night. He had frequently hosted captured enemy general officers at his mess table in both France and North Africa. But this time, he was the guest of fifteen American paratroopers in warpaint and Mohawk haircuts and dined royally on something called 'C-Rations'. He felt right at home. It was a soldiers' mess. They were surprised that he spoke English very well and had a thousand questions, mostly the kind that soldiers do, and his answers were the honest ones that he would've told his own men. Long ago, he learned that the human heart is the foundation of all things military.

The morning found them still speaking when the guards came running into the barn as the doors splintered above them. German shouts of command came from outside. Second-Lieutenant Eberly was going to fight it out in the stout stone barn, until a Panzerfaust 60M blew a hole in the wall and wounded four of his men with shrapnel. He surrendered. The German  _Unterfeldwebel_ (Staff Sergeant) commanding the patrol was an experienced soldier, having survived Stalingrad, Kursk and a lot more on the Eastern Front. Still, he wasn't quite prepared to hear a clear German voice of command coming from the barn before the Desert Fox stepped out.

The German medics attended to the wounded as the others were searched for hidden weapons. Twenty minutes later, the 16th (Reconnaissance) Company/6th Fallschirmjager Regiment arrived later as an escort. Rommel was on the company's Torn.Fu.d2 Backpack Field Radio in animated conversation when he stopped and pointed to Eberly who stared, holding his breath. 'That one comes with me', said Rommel to  _Oberfeldwebel_ Alexander Uhlig. Eberly was hustled into a Type 82/0 Kubelwagen. From the back seat, he watched Rommel shaking hands with each of the other captured paratroopers.


	49. Operation Royal Oak, June 7th: Sainte-Mere-Eglise Again

Witt hadn't heard of Rommel's rescue when he began the second round of his duel with Matthew Ridgway. His plan to break the American pocket in Sainte-Mere-Eglise had been knocked twice out of his hands the day before. At 0500, he attacked from three sides, preceded by a sharp artillery bombardment. From the north came 2nd Battalion/1058th Grenadier Regiment, the 7th Army's Assault Battalion, the 206th Panzer Replacement and Training Battalion, and the 709th Panzerjager Battalion. From the south came 3rd Battalion/1058th Grenadier Regiment. And from the east, Witt led the attack of his SS-kampfgruppe.

The gliders that had landed the previous day had resupplied Ridgway with more than just anti-tank guns and ammunition, they had also brought in the U.S 82nd Airborne Division's high-power SCR-499 Field Radio. The disasters and disappointments of June 6th had concentrated all the anxiety of the American chain-of-command on the rump of the paratroopers who were under siege in Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Everything that could fire was put in support. The counterbattery fire from the U.S 4th Infantry Division's 20th (equipped with twelve 155mm M1 L/24.5 Medium Field Howitzers), 29th (equipped with twelve 105mm M2A1 L/22 Light Field Howitzers), 42nd (also equipped with twelve 105mm M2A1 Light Field Howitzers), and 44th (also equipped with twelve 105mm M2A1 Light Field Howitzers) Field Artillery Battalions* smothered the Seventh Army's Assault Battalion's light artillery battery north of the town and forced the surviving pieces to displace. The 91st Airlanding Division never got beyond the 82nd's listening posts, so heavy was the curtain of fire around the town.

Some of that artillery had fallen on the 795th Georgian Battalion which was nervously holding the blocking position to the east of Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Witt had depended on them to hold the Americans long enough for him to overrun the town. The battalion had been in a state of sustained panic and had only repulsed the first attack of the U.S 4th Infantry Division the day before because their German officers and NCOs were ready to shoot them on the spot if they tried to desert. Today, that fear had evaporated. Instead, they shot most of the Germans among them and then fled into the arms of the attacking 8th Infantry Regiment. The few surviving Germans ran in the opposite direction and warned Witt of what had happened. The commander of the 12th SS Panzer Division sent a single Panzer IVH, one of the captured 6-Pounder Mark IV (Mark III Carriage) L/43 Anti-Tank Guns and an infantry platoon in support west into the hole left by the Georgians. He also sent his Chief-of-Staff,  _SS-Obertsturmbannfuhrer_ Hubert Meyer (not related to Kurt Meyer), to guide them into position. There was no time for anything fancier than finding a suitable fold in the ground or a stone wall, and they barely beat the Americans to the punch.

The M4A3 Shermans of the 746th Tank Battalion had shot forward with infantry clinging to their backs through the new hole in the German lines. Their orders were to break through to the U.S 82nd Airborne Division regardless. Sainte-Merge-Eglise was barely a mile and a half away and seemed to be in their grasp already. They passed both through and around Turqueville and were approaching Ecoqueneauville when the first three tanks were hit. The riding infantry were thrown off by the hits, leaving the burning tanks surrounded by a ring of crumpled men. The battalion kept on going. Short intense actions were fought between groups of 88mm FlaK 36 L/56 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Guns belonging to the 30th FlaK Regiment and M4A3 Shermans that were struggling into the gap. An 88mm FlaK 36 on the edge of the village picked off four tanks in quick succession. The infantry had already dismounted and were following the M4A3 Shermans when they were hit. Their officers led them past the burning tanks when an MG42 cut a swath through them. The rest disappeared into the nearest fold in the earth. More tanks appeared and more dismounted infantry followed. The 88mm FlaK 36 took another kill before its crew fled when they were about to be overrun by the infantry. The Americans broke into the village and reduced it house by house. SS-Kampfgruppe Witt counterattacked wherever they could, but were beaten back. Still, the men of the 8th Infantry Regiment had to kill every one of them and it took time. Major-General committed his reserve: the 359th Infantry Regiment (commanded by Colonel Clark K. Fales) from the follow-on U.S 90th Infantry Division. Led by the 70th Tank Battalion, they swung north of the fighting between SS-Kampfgruppe Witt and the 8th Infantry Regiment. The few AT guns that Witt had on that flank were brushed away by heavy artillery fire. It fell upon Witt who took personal command of a Panzer IVH and some SS-Panzergrenadiers and lead them into a counterattack, and he died with his teenagers*.

Both the 359th Infantry Regiment and the 70th Tank Battalion rode straight into Sainte-Mere-Eglise. The U.S 82nd Airborne Division was relieved. Meyer took over SS-Kampfgruppe Witt. As soon as the Americans broke the ring around the town, it was the SS-kampfgruppe that was in danger. The 3rd Battalion/1058th Grenadier Regiment fell back towards Carentan while Meyer pulled his SS-kampfgruppe through Fauville, south down the road to the slightly-higher ground around Les Forges, which tied in with the Merderet River to the west and the inundated area to the east with only two miles between them. It was a better defensive position than most with water on either flank. In the late afternoon, they were treated to the sight of another large glider landing, with this one safely executed near Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Later patrols from the 359th Infantry Regiment approached Les Forges, but were driven off. By nightfall, the Americans were in position in strength.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *In WW2, the artillery brigade in a U.S infantry division consisted of an HQ detachment, one 155mm field artillery battalion and three 105mm field artillery battalions. This gave each brigade a total of twelve 155mm M1 L/24.5 Medium Field Howitzers and thirty-six 105mm M2A1 L/22 Light Field Howitzers.
> 
> *Witt was posthumously promoted to SS-Gruppenfuhrer and awarded the Oak Leaves with Swords to his Knight's Cross.


	50. Operation Royal Oak, June 7th: The Batteries at Azeville and Saint-Marcouf

There was another battle that day on the Cotentin Peninsula. The 12th and 22nd Infantry Regiments of the U.S 4th Infantry Division began their struggle against 2nd Battery/1261st Army Coastal Artillery Regiment at Azeville and 2nd Battery/260th Naval Artillery Battalion at Saint-Marcouf. At 0700, _Hauptmann_ Treiber called his naval counterpart at Saint-Marcouf,  _Oberleutnant zur See_ Ohmsen, to report that one of his 105mm K331(f) Field Guns had been smashed by a direct hit at the embrasure of the H650 Gun Casemate it was in. Suddenly, Ohmsen heard MG42s firing from his own position and the shout: 'Alarm! Enemy attack from the south!' 1st Battalion/22nd Infantry Regiment had approached close to the battery before the Germans were alerted. The battery's six 75mm FlaK M.36(f) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Guns and two 20mm FlaK 38 L/65 Autocannons, barbed wire and trench system had been smashed or swept away by two days of naval bombardment, and the Americans flooded the battery position as their combat engineers rushed towards the bunkers with their demolition equipment.

Ohmsen reacted quickly: 'Signal to Azeville Battery: 'Request fire support on my own position. I repeat, request fire support on my own position'. The  _Obermaatsignalgast_ (Signalman 2nd Class) hesitated in disbelief. 'Get on with it, man! We might suffer some losses, but its our only chance'. At the Azeville Battery, Treiber quickly understood Ohmsen's message and said to one of his NCOs: 'Schurger, we're going to make those damn Yankees dance'. His three remaining 105mm K331(f) Field Guns planted a few HE rounds precisely in the middle of Ohmsen's position, blowing away the Americans who had just climbed ontop of the bunkers. Ohmsen rallied his 315 Kriegsmarine artillerymen to counterattack and they charged out of their bunkers with bayonets fixed just as 6th Company/919th Grenadier Regiment arrived as reinforcements. Together, they threw the Americans out of the battery position and pursued them so vigorously that the American retreat became a rout that not even the commitment of a reserve company could stop it. The Germans returned in triumph with nearly a hundred POWs. Clearly, greater forces were necessary to reduce these two batteries.

Despite this black eye, at the end of the day, the American chain-of-command breathed a collective sigh of relief. The disaster at Omaha Beach had galvanized everyone into a supreme effort today in the relief of the U.S 82nd Airborne Division. The battered 8th and 359th Infantry Regiments, along with their supporting tank battalions, had shown real drive. The coordination of artillery had broken Witt's grasp on Sainte-Mere-Eglise for the third and final time and rolled the Germans south. Now the Utah Beach lodgement was a broad triangle running east from its blunt two-mile wide point on the Merderet River. The rest of the U.S 90th Infantry Division was coming ashore and was being deployed in the southern half of the lodgement. The U.S 4th Infantry Division, with elements from the U.S 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions being attached, was concentrating against the German forts on the northern edge of the lodgement. The U.S 7th Corps was now fully-operational, and the Americans had now at last have their firm toehold on the Continent.


	51. Operation Royal Oak, June 7th: The Germans Regroup

German communications had definitely warmed up with the news that Rommel was back. The dissemination of the Ultra intercepts to that effect had the opposite effect. Montgomery was disappointed, but didn't show it. Chivalrous and generous as a reflection of his stern Christianity, but also because it made good policy. Monty was not above more practical considerations. As much as he admired the Desert Fox, he also understood that for just that reason, the sooner he was dead, the fewer British soldiers would die.

Rommel's return short-circuited all of the emergency command arrangements that had been half-implemented by the elimination of the army group to army to korps chain-of-command in Normandy. His presence was felt immediately. He first stopped at the 84th Army Korps' HQ at the Chateau de Chiffrevast to be briefed on the current situation before calling Speidel. His hopes soared when he learned from his Chief-of-Staff that von Rundstedt had successfully persuaded Hitler to execute Case Three. Rommel then transferred  _General der Artillerie_ Wilhelm Fahrmbacher, commander of the 7th Army's 25th Army Korps (whose HQ was at the Chateau de Rohan in Pontivy) to take command of the 84th Army Korps and then transferred  _General der Panzertruppen_ Adolf-Friedrich Kuntzen, commander of the 15th Army's 81st Army Korps (whose HQ was at the Chateau de Deux-Lions in Canteleu) to take over Fahrmbacher's old korps command. He then promoted Pemsel to  _General der Gebirgstruppen_ (General of Mountain Troops/Lieutenant-General) and appointed him as acting commander of the 7th Army. Rommel then called  _General der Infanterie_ Rudolf Schmundt, Chief of the Heer Personnel Office, and personally requested and received the assignment for  _General der Infanterie_ Dietrich von Choltitz to take command of the 81st Army Korps which had three out of its five divisions that were fighting east of the Orne River. If anyone could keep the British pinned to the Orne River, it was the daring and tenacious von Choltitz. He had been the first German battalion commander in the invasion of Holland in 1940* and fought in the Siege of Sevastopol. Rommel then ordered the concentration of the 12th SS Panzer Division in the Cerisy Forest after nightfall. There he met Kurt Meyer and informed him on the death of Franz Witt and his new appointment as division commander before promoting him to  _SS-Oberfuhrer_ (Senior-Colonel). Stabbing the map with his finger, the Desert Fox emphasized the place where the Hitlerjugend would make its mark in the next few days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *In May of 1940, Choltitz and his unit (which was 3rd Battalion/16th Infantry Regiment of the 22nd Airlanding Division) participated in the Battle of Rotterdam by making an air landing and seized some of the city's key bridges. After the Bombardment of Rotterdam, during a meeting with the Dutch about discussing the terms of surrender of all Dutch forces in Rotterdam, Generalleutnant Kurt Student was shot in the head (though he managed to survive that and the bullet that hit him was later determined to be a stray German round). Student was very popular with his men and when the German forces moved to execute surrendering Dutch officers in reprisal, Choltitz personally intervened and was able to stop the massacre in time. His actions during the assault on Rotterdam earned him the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.


	52. Operation Spanner, June 8th-11th: The British Sector

Operation Royal Oak had done more than wreck two of the British Army's best divisions and Montgomery's hopes. The end of the battle perversely had almost doubled the size of the lodgement. The gain in ground was, in fact, a deadly prize. Most of the new ground was in the shape of a deep salient that ran down the Orne River to Thury-Harcourt. It did nothing to expand the operational depth of the lodgement to support the buildup and would be difficult to defend. Much of it was beyond the range of naval gunfire support. It was a major operational liability.

For all these reasons, the Thury-Harcourt Salient also begged to be attacked. Rommel had instantly recognized its importance. Bayerlein's victory at Villers-Bocage had brought him the time he needed to concentrate the forces necessary for the counterpunch. Kurt Meyer's 12th SS Panzer Division had slipped out of the fighting around Bayeux and taken up positions between Tilly-sur-Seulles where the SS-kampfgruppe that Witt had taken to fight the Americans joined it. The Panzer Lehr Division sidestepped to the east and occupied the front between Villers-Bocage and Thury-Harcourt. The British or the Canadians hadn't stirred much on June 8th and 9th after Bayerlein's drubbing, which was fine for Rommel as they were giving him a gift of time.

The time was paying for the arrival of his Case Three reinforcements. Dietrich arrived with his 1st SS Panzer Korps and support units to provide the operation command and control of the panzer divisions. Schweppenburg also arrived with his Panzer Group West staff and began busily preparing the operational plans of the counterattack. On the evening of June 8th, the 2nd and the 116th Panzer Divisions' last elements arrived at the front. The 2nd Panzer Division (commanded by  _Generalleutnant_ Heinrich Freiherr von Luttwitz) was hidden southeast of Caen in the Cinglais Forest. The 116th Panzer Division (commanded by  _Generalleutnant_ Gerhard Graf von Schwerin), stationed on the Seine River, was closest to the front and was passed behind the two panzer divisions to fill the gap between the 352nd Infantry and the 12th SS Panzer Divisions. The Landsers (German Tommies or GIs) of the 84th Infantry Division (commanded by  _Generalleutnant_ Erwin Menny) were filtered across the front of the Panzer Lehr Division while the advance elements of the 77th Infantry Division (commanded by  _Generalleutnant_ Rudolf Stegmann) took positions in front of the 12th SS Panzer Division. Now, the mobile units could pull out of the line to regroup. Northeast of Caen, the 346th Infantry (commanded by  _Generalmajor_ Oscar Kreutz) and the 17th Luftwaffe Field (commanded by  _Oberst_ Hans Liebknecht) Divisions had been thrown immediately against the Orne River bridgehead as soon as they arrived.

Formed in September 1942 at Bad Hersfeld, the majority of the 346th Infantry Division's manpower came from formations serving in France on occupation duties. In November of that year, the division was sent to France as a garrison unit, initially at Saint-Malo but moved to Le Harve in the spring of 1944. The 346th Infantry Division consisted of the 857th and 858th Grenadier Regiments, each with three battalions. However, somewhere in 1943, the 857th Grenadier Regiment's 1st Battalion was transferred to the Eastern Front. To makeup for its loss, the 630th Ost Battalion was brought in and designated as 1st Battalion/857th Grenadier Regiment. The division's 346th Artillery Regiment had twelve 76.2mm FK 297(r) Field Guns, twelve 105mm leFH 325(f) Howitzers*, and twelve sFH 396(r) Field Howitzers. When the 346th Infantry Division was ordered to move to Normandy under Case Three, the 761st Special Purpose Artillery Regiment (containing the 460th (equipped with eight 152.4mm KH 433/1(r) Heavy Guns-Howitzers* and four 122mm K390/2(r) Field Guns) and the 659th (equipped with three 172.5mm K 18 in MrsLaf L/47 Heavy Field Guns) Army Heavy Artillery Battalions) was attached to the divisional headquarters. The division's 346th Panzerjager Battalion was equipped with fourteen Marder IIIM Tank Destroyers, ten StuG IIIG Assault Guns, and twelve SdKfz 10/5 Anti-Aircraft Half-Tracks. Also attached to the division when it was sent to Normandy was the 205th Panzer Replacement and Training Battalion (equipped with twenty-nine Panzer 38H 735(f)s (with eleven of them each fitted with four Wurfrahmen 40 rocket launcher frames, with two on each side, to fire either 280mm High-Explosive or 320mm Incendiary rockets).

Not to be mistaken with either the elite Fallschrimjager or the 1st Fallschrim-Panzer 'Hermann Goring' Divisions, the Luftwaffe Field Divisions were infantry divisions formed from the German Air Force's excess military or technical ground personnel. They find their origin in the terrible winter of 1941-42. After its failed attempt at capturing Moscow, the Heer went on the defensive and was soon under constant attacks by fresh Soviet troops, who were better-suited to the winter conditions on the Eastern Front. Every single soldier or unit was thrown into the fight to keep the Soviets at bay, and that included Luftwaffe ground crews. Following an appeal for volunteers from their leader,  _Reichsmarschall_ Goring, Luftwaffe personnel raised four provisional infantry regiments. In February of 1942, they were sent to the Eastern Front, along with cadres from the elite 1st Air-Assault Regiment, and formed the ad-hoc 'Division Meindl, named from its commanding officer and legendary paratrooper,  _Generalmajor_ Eugen 'Papa' Meindl. Although inexperienced in ground combat and lacking equipment, this all-volunteer force led by elite officers and NCOs, and under the command of such an inspiring figure, performed well by distinguishing itself in the Battle of the Demyansk-Kholm Pocket. They created a myth which would serve very badly for their successors, which were mostly-pressed Luftwaffe ground crews serving under officers as inexperienced as them.

In the spring of 1942, the Heer had been decimated and was looking for any source of immediately available manpower to replace its casualties on the Eastern Front. Heer brasses managed to convince Hitler to let them tap into surplus Luftwaffe troops, much to Goring's wrath. To retain command of his men, the latter made Hitler a counter-offer of raising twenty-two infantry divisions if only they remained under his control. Highlighting the performance of Meindl's men and the higher degree of Nazi indoctrination of the Luftwaffe, which he feared would be misused by 'reactionary' Heer officers, Goring finally got his way. The first ten Luftwaffe field divisions were formed in September of 1942, each with four Luftwaffe-Jager battalions (while a normal German infantry division had three infantry regiments with three battalions each), one artillery battalion (the regular infantry division had a three-battalion artillery regiment), and one company each of fusiliers, panzerjagers, and pioneers (instead of one battalion of each in the infantry division). This meant that a Luftwaffe field division was much smaller than their Heer counterpart, almost half the size. Adding to that, most of the SMGs in the Luftwaffe field divisions were MP28s (which was considered by many experts as the most finely-crafted SMG at its time). When they're weren't many MG34s available, they substituted it with both the MG15 and the MG271(f)*. Also, their artillery guns and mortars were often of second-rate and their anti-tank weapons were mostly restricted to the 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Gun. However, there were two positive features though. Firstly, each Luftwaffe field division had a full Luftwaffe anti-aircraft battalion with four 88mm FlaK 36 L/56 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Guns. And secondly, said divisions were entirely equipped with trucks used as gun-transports and supply vehicles, and they had no horses at all.

While Meindl and his airborne officers had been able to provide a strong cadre for the four infantry regiments of volunteers that were sent to the Eastern Front in early 1942, such was the case when the Luftwaffe had to find enough officers to lead  _ten_ divisions. Hence, most of them were completely inexperienced in infantry combat, from the mere platoon leaders to the general officers. Two divisional commanders had previously held the function as head of the Luftwaffe's meteorology service for one, and judge advocate general for the other! The officers were pilots taken out of their plans or staff officers; the NCOs who were specialists torn away from their comparatively prestigious technical jobs. None of them wanted to be pressed into the infantry. And none of them, whatever their rank, received proper instruction: they were dispatched to the front as soon as possible, often with barely a few weeks of training and sometimes even incomplete, from Leningrad to the Caucasus.

Needless to say, those divisions performed poorly. Three of them (the 2nd, 7th and 8th Luftwaffe Field Divisions) were destroyed on the Eastern Front after a few weeks of combat, once the Soviets ID'd them as the weak link of the German front, they often singled them out as the main effort of their offensives. Once again, Heer officers pointed out to Hitler that those men would be better used under their command, and this time they won the case. In November 1943, all of the remaining Luftwaffe field divisions and those still forming passed under Heer control and were reorganized along the lines of regular light infantry divisions (each with three two-battalion Luftwaffe-Jager regiments, one three-battalion Luftwaffe-Artillery regiment, one Luftwaffe-Pioneer battalion, one Luftwaffe-Panzerjager battalion, and one Luftwaffe-Fusilier battalion, but lost its FlaK battalion in the process.

Formed in December 1942 in Munich, the 17th Luftwaffe Field Division was passed under Heer control in November 1943 and reorganized along the lines of a regular light infantry division before being sent to France as an occupation force at Le Havre. The 17th Luftwaffe Field Division consisted of the 33rd, 34th, and 47th Luftwaffe-Jager Regiments. In January 1944, the 835th Ost Battalion was attached to the 34th Luftwaffe-Jager Regiment and designated as the regiment's 3rd Battalion. The division's 17th Luftwaffe-Artillery Regiment was understrength with only two battalions; the 1st had twelve 105mm leFH 325(f) Howitzers, and the 2nd had twelve 149.1mm sFH 25(t) Heavy Howitzers*. When the division was ordered to move to Normandy under Case Three, the 621st Ost Artillery Battalion (which was equipped with eight 76.2mm FK 295/2(r) Field Guns* and four 122mm sFH 396(r) Field Howitzers) was attached to the divisional headquarters. The 17th Luftwaffe-Panzerjager Battalion was equipped with three 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Guns, six 75mm PaK 40 L/46 Anti-Tank Guns, two StuG IIIG Assault Guns and twelve 20mm FlaK 38 L/65 Autocannons.

Von Choltitz had arrived to take over command of the 15th Army's 81st Army Korps there late on June 8th, having driven at breakneck speed from Germany. By June 10th, the Germans had concentrated three new infantry, one Luftwaffe field and two panzer divisions against the British-Canadian sector, a healthy accomplishment. There had been a price. The constant air attacks and ambushes by the French Resistance had taken the edge off every unit (except for the 346th Infantry and the 17th Luftwaffe Field Divisions) and reduced combat power by anywhere from five to ten percent. Resupply efforts had been even more badly hurt, although 2,100 tons of munitions and 1,050 gallons of fuel and lubricants were safely delivered to the German units fighting in Normandy.

Not all of the British and Canadian forces had been relatively quiet. The Canadian 3rd Infantry Division launched a sharp counterattack on Tilly-sur-Seulles the day after Operation Royal Oak and recaptured the town. Elsewhere, the action was on the flanks of the lodgement as Montgomery attempted to 'tidy up the battlefield' as he liked to say (much to the intense irritation of the Americans). With the Canadians having removed the bothersome German hold on Tilly-sur-Seulles, he now shifted both the 49th (West Riding) and the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Divisions to the line Bayeux to Tilly-sur-Seulles and fed the newly-arriving U.S 5th Corps into the fight against the 352nd Infantry Division. The U.S 2nd Infantry and 29th Infantry Divisions attacked almost immediately. On the other flank, Monty responded to the German attacks on the Orne River bridgehead by reinforcing it with the 13th/18th Royal Hussars, the 4th Armoured Brigade, and the remainder of the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division. Two armored units, the U.S 2nd Armored Division as part of the U.S 5th Corps and the British 11th Armoured Division as the lead unit of the British 8th Corps, were arriving as well. If Lieutenant-General Dempsey, commander of the British 2nd Army, was bothered by Montgomery's effective usurpation of his role as field army commander, he didn't let on in public. More and more, this became Monty's battle, as it was becoming Rommel's on the other side of the hill.

Von Schweppenburg was much less accommodating than Dempsey. He had already clashed with Rommel before the invasion on the positioning of the panzer reserves. Now he opposed the deployment for the counterpunch that the Desert Fox had set in motion. He insisted that it wasn't bold enough and that Rommel had become gun shy about Allied air power, but that act of hubris was about to be punished. Ultra quickly identified the location of the HQ of Panzer Group West at the Chateau La Caine at La Caine. On the evening of June 10th, RAF's Mitchell IIs* of No. 139 Wing and the Typhoon Mark Ibs of No. 124 Wing paid von Schweppenburg a visit. Soon, Panzer Group West ceased to exist as a functioning as an HQ. Both von Schweppenburg and his Chief-of-Staff,  _Generalmajor_ Sigismund-Helmut Ritter und Edler von Dawans were both wounded while seventeen other staff officers were killed. Their bodies were given proper burials. Rommel wasn't sorry to see the troublesome von Schweppenburg and his Chief-of-Staff being carried off to a hospital in Paris; he was alarmed at the loss of a highly-trained and expert staff that had been carefully preparing for this very moment in the invasion battle. Responsibility for the operation was shifted down to the 1st SS Panzer Korps to Sepp Dietrich's dismay. He liked to be near his troops (do to being a former NCO who saw combat in WW1), and army-level command would take him in the opposite direction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The leFH 325(f) was the German designation for the French Canon de 105mm court modele 1935 B L/16.7 Howitzer.
> 
> *The KH 433/1(r) was the German designation for the Soviet 152.4mm M1937 (ML-20) L/29 Heavy Gun-Howitzer.
> 
> *The MG271(f) was the German designation for the French-made Hotchkiss M1929 Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) which fired the 13.2x96mm cartridge round.
> 
> *The sFH 25(t) was the German designation for the Czech-made 149.1mm hruba houfnice vz. 25 L/18 Heavy Howitzer.
> 
> *The FK 295/2(r) was the German designation for the Soviet 76.2mm M1902/30 L/40 Divisional Field Gun.
> 
> *The Mitchell II was the British and Canadian designation for the B-25C in RAF service.


	53. Operation Spanner, June 8th-11th: Crisis on the Orne

To buy his time, Rommel decided to keep Montgomery on the flanks of the British-Canadian sector while he prepared his own attack on the centre. East of the Orne River, German resistance had already sucked in the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division's 153rd Infantry Brigade on June 7th. On the morning of the 8th of June, said brigade, which was temporarily attached to the British 6th Airborne Division, was ordered to push eastward on an arc from Breville to Touffreville. The 5th Black Watch Battalion's objective was Breville. Within a mile, they ran into a hornet's nest.

The ditches at the side of the road were full of Germans, and the whole of the front was swept by very accurate fire. The result was that Able Company was wiped out; as a matter of fact, every man in the leading platoon died with his face to the foe. Lieutenant-Colonel Thomson, the battalion commander, then decided to occupy the ground south of the Chateau de Breville, which was half-a-mile south of the village. The Germans put down a very heavy attack on said chateau and the ground around it before putting in a strong frontal attack. Despite everything the Germans could do, the much-depleted 5th Black Watch Battalion stood their ground, and the Germans withdrew.

Both the 1st and the 5th/7th Gordon Highlanders Battalions were luckier. They easily occupied Touffreville by 0800, and the 5th/7th Gordon Highlanders Battalion just as easily threw back another strong German counterattack. Sergeant Tom Aikenhead of Baker Company had been captured in the counterattack, but managed to escape in the night during a mortar attack.

The 153rd Infantry Brigade (commanded by Brigadier-General Sir Horatius Murray) had tangled with elements of two German divisions, the 346th Infantry and the 17th Luftwaffe Field Divisions. Despite loosing its division commander and his HQ staff, along with the entire 22nd Panzer Regiment (except for its 4th Company), the entire 192nd Panzergrenadier Regiment, the 200th Panzerjager Battalion, the 305th Army FlaK Battalion, both the 155th Panzer Artillery Regiment's HQ staff and its 3rd Battalion, the rest of the 21st Panzer Division were able to successfully join up with newly-promoted  _Oberstleutnant_ Hans von Luck's kampfgruppe. They were later reinforced with by the 989th Army Artillery Battalion (which was equipped with twelve 122mm sFH 396(r) Field Howitzers), 1st Company/716th Pioneer Battalion, and the 716th Panzerjager Battalion. With von Choltitz's arrival, the HQ staff of the 81st Army Korps immediately began preparing a bigger party for the British and the Canadians. The stocky 5'4-foot monocle-wearing German seemed to be living on adrenaline as he drove both his new Chief-of-Staff,  _Oberst_ Rolf Wiese, and the rest of his HQ to organize the attack. He didn't believe in written orders where speed is vital. Instead, mission orders were given directly to his subordinate division commanders. Von Choltitz sized them up quickly.  _Generalmajor_ Oscar Kreutz (who was a recipient of the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords) of the 346th Infantry Division was a fighter; he had known him on the Eastern Front.  _Oberst_ Hans Liebknecht was just bewildered, one of the few Luftwaffe divisional commanders the Heer hadn't replaced when they took over control of the Luftwaffe field divisions in November 1943. Von Choltitz relieved him on the spot and replaced him with the more combat-experienced Luftwaffe _Oberst_ Hans von Luger (who was a recipient of the Pour le Merite, which he had won as an infantry officer during the Battle of Tannenberg in World War 1), commander of the division's 47th Luftwaffe-Jager Regiment*. On the morning of June 9th, the 81st Army Korps attacked with the 346th Infantry and 17th Luftwaffe Field Divisions on a line running from north to south. Kampfgruppe von Luck led the attack on the northern flank with the objective being Ranville, which was the HQ of the British 6th Airborne Division. Coming out Bois de Bavent Forest, a German tank crewman recalled:

'We rolled forward in attack formation, suddenly, the enemy artillery opened up. The panzergrenadiers were halted and began to dig in. Inside our panzers, we ducked, surprised by this unexpectedly strong defence. But we drove through the shelling, on and up the hill to the glider landing field, where we met with such a hail of shells that the panzers turned to the left towards Longueval. Now POWs began to appear, and when we sprayed the tree-tops, wounded Englishmen fell out of them. Unsupported by both our own artillery and panzergrenadiers, we were in the middle of both enemy anti-tank and infantry positions, where every hedge and ditch spat fire, their occupants determined not to be overrun'.

If 4th Company/22nd Panzer Regiment was in a state of anxiety over their position in the middle of an anti-tank cauldron, von Luck was elated. By 1015, the panzer spearhead had penetrated almost to the Orne River, splitting the bridgehead, but they couldn't survive much longer unsupported. He moved heaven and earth to get 1st Company/716th Pioneer Battalion (which was the closest unit) moving up forward to catch up with the tanks. They were just in time. Three Panzer IVGs were burning as the pioneers rode into action in trucks, bringing heavy small-arms fire onto the 6-Pounder Mark III L/43 Anti-Tank Guns that the British paratroopers were using. One after another, the AT guns were silenced. The bridges over the Orne River were barely two miles away to the north.

Meanwhile, the 17th Luftwaffe Field Division was attacking strongly against both the 5th Black Watch Battalion of the 153rd Infantry Brigade and the 1st Special Service Brigade around Breville. South of the Bois de Bavent, the 346th Infantry Division struck the two battalions of the Gordon Highlanders in Touffreville at 0530. The Gordon Highlanders held off their attacks all morning as the Germans seized and lost foothold after foothold in the village. Both the division's 346th Artillery Regiment and the 761st Special Purpose Artillery Regiment had caused much of Touffreville. The last attack had been lead by six Panzer 38H 735(f)s from the 205th Panzer Replacement and Training Battalion. All six of them now lay smoking just inside the village with a platoon's worth of Germans sprawled dead in files behind them. By noon, the battalions of the 858th Grenadier Regiment were sweeping northwest of Touffreville to cut it off. It was now or never for the Gordon Highlanders. Rather than see the two battalions cut off, the British 6th Airborne Division authorized them to abandon the village and retreat back upon the paratroopers. The 5th/7th Gordon Highlanders Battalion were first, followed by the 1st Gordon Highlanders Battalion as rearguard. They had just missed the gate. The lead platoon of the 5th/7th Gordon Highlanders was cut up by the fire from several MG42 crews that the Germans of the 858th Grenadier Regiment had infiltrated. Baker Company tried to manoeuvre its other platoons to the left. One of its platoons manoeuvred close to one MG42 crew. First-Lieutenant George Carver led one section of his platoon in a dash towards the MG42 crew while the rest of his platoon laid down covering fire. The Germans kept their heads down a moment too long. Carver was in the lead, throwing No. 36M Hand Grenades one after another right into the German position. He followed the last blast over a fallen log that was guarding the MG42 and finished off its crew with his Sten Mark III SMG. The section followed after him into the position to examine their kill before a stream of fire from another MG42 crew sliced through them, killing Carver and three other men*. More Germans were infiltrating the area and took the rest of the platoon under fire with heavy casualties. A German platoon, supported by several MG42s, counterattacked and was thrown back, leaving three men on the ground. By now, a whole company had the platoon surrounded. Another counterattack washed over them. All but seven of the twenty-eight men who had started that morning were either killed, wounded or captured.

With its leading company badly hurt, the commander of the 5th/7th Gordon Highlanders Battalion ordered a charge by his remaining companies to break open the rapidly-thickening German opposition, but they were knocked almost immediately back to their starting positions by both the volume and accuracy of the German fire. The Germans followed with company-sized attacks on the battalion's flanks. With what appeared to be an entire regiment in front of them, the 5th/7th Gordon Highlanders could go no further. Now this wounded battalion formed the rearguard as the column turned around to march back into Touffreville about three in the afternoon. The 1st Gordon Highlanders Battalion now had to fight its way back into the village, throwing out the German company that had followed them on the way out. More attacks followed, probing for the soft spot. It was a grim fact that the Germans they had been fighting all day weren't troops from static divisions. They just keep coming back, always aggressive, always attacking. German dead littered both the outskirts and the streets of the village, but so did the Gordon Highlanders. By nightfall, there had been over 500 casualties in the two battalions altogether.

The Gordon Highlanders were trapped and almost out of ammunition. Kreutz and his 346th Infantry Division smelled victory and kept up the pressure all night. Von Choltitz also succumbed to the chance of overrunning most of a British infantry brigade and failed to make Kreutz mask Touffreville and press on his attack towards the Orne River. Instead of striking the British 6th Airborne Division's southern flank with both its 857th and 858th Grenadier Regiments, the 346th Infantry Division struck with only its 857th Grenadier Regiment. Luck shouldn't have rewarded that attack, but perversely did just that. The 857th Grenadier Regiment struck at the join between the 3rd Parachute and the 6th Airlanding Brigades shortly after eleven in the morning and broke right through, cutting off the 3rd Parachute Brigade, which had been in the apex of the British position facing the Bois de Bavent Forest. The fighting now settled down to attack and counterattack as the 3rd Parachute and 6th Airlanding Brigades tried to reestablish contact. The Germans hung on and were supported by the 17th Luftwaffe Field Division which was pressing down on the 3rd Parachute Brigade from the north.

Von Luck's success was followed up by an attack up north to seize the Orne River bridges. By now, the British were seriously alarmed over the strength and success of the German attacks east of the Orne River, with the bridgehead appearing to be in a rapidly closing vice. With both the 3rd Parachute Brigade and most of the 153rd Infantry Brigade cut off, the situation reminded too many officers around Monty of Tobruk. The 4th Royal Horse Artillery (equipped with 25-Pounder Mark II L/28 Field Guns/Howitzers) Battalion and the 53rd Medium Artillery (equipped with BL 5.5-inch Mark III L/30 Medium Artillery Guns) Battalion, Royal Artillery and naval gunfire support were thrown onto the scales. The British 1st Corps' reserve was also thrown into the battle, the 4th Armoured Brigade and the 152nd Infantry Brigade from the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division, as well as the 13th/18th Royal Hussars from the 8th Armoured Brigade. The 51st (Highland) Infantry Division's third brigade, the 154th Infantry, was given priority on landing over the beaches.

The tanks of the 4th Armoured Brigade's Royal Scots Greys were the first across the Caen Canal and then the Orne River at 1725 before turning south. They met both 4th Company/22nd Panzer Regiment and 1st Company/716th Pioneer Battalion half-a-mile from the Orne River, nailed to the ground by the guns of both the Royal Artillery and the Royal Navy. When the fire lifted, the Royal Scots Greys attacked right into the churned earth and splintered trees that held the stunned Germans. Overturned Panzer IVGs and corpses were everywhere. POWs began stumbling forward, dazed and their ears bleeding. The Royal Scots Greys were shooting up any of the survivors that still had any argument left in them. Rushing the 716th Panzerjager Battalion's two 88mm PaK 43/41 L/71 Anti-Tank Guns forward, von Luck was able to buy the time he needed to pull back the surviving Panzer IVGs and pioneers before they were swept away by the British tanks. The two 88mm PaK 43/41s destroyed twelve of the Royal Scots Greys' tanks before the concentrated fire from the Sherman Vs wiped them out.

The attack of the 17th Luftwaffe Field Division was less expert than that of the 346th Infantry Division, but it had the weight of numbers and a new experienced commander. The 5th Black Watch Battalion was shoved back from the outskirts of Breville and managed to link hands with Lord Lovat's Commandos just outside the British 6th Airborne Division's HQ at Ranville by 1000. While the regular German infantry of the 346th Infantry Division had expertly used infiltration, fire and movement tactics to pry the British troops out of many of their positions, some companies in the 17th Luftwaffe Field Division showed the clumsiness on the battlefield to be expected of Luftwaffe personnel (wearing their standard Feldblau (field-blue) uniforms or donning M1944 Splinter-B cameo pattern field jackets) pressed into the infantry with little to no training. Their attacks were sometimes straightforward affairs, usually across open fields, much like WW1, and with the same results. The 5th Black Watch and the Commandos tore many holes in their ranks with every step backward. Just outside of Ranville, the 17th Luftwaffe Field Division ran out of steam and almost didn't expect the immediate counterattack delivered by the tanks of the 44th Battalion/Royal Tank Regiment, which had crossed over the Orne River behind the Royal Scots Greys. What probably saved the 33rd Luftwaffe-Jager Regiment was that its regimental commander ordered a tactical retreat back towards the woods, knowing that his men didn't have any anti-tank weapons on their persons. Captain Archibald Clarke led his troop towards the retreating enemy, gunning down any Luftwaffe-Jagers he and his men could see as they left their own supporting infantry behind to chase after the Germans. It was inevitable that the advance would bounce into something, and that was the 17th Luftwaffe-Panzerjager Battalion which had been moving up from behind the 33rd Luftwaffe-Jager Regiment. They announced their presence when Clarke saw three of his Sherman Vs blow up and gush fire out of their hatches. Four more were blown up as HE rounds from both the 17th Luftwaffe-Artillery Regiment and the 621st Ost Artillery Battalion came landing in the middle of his shrinking formation. Clarke pulled his squadron back behind the last tree line he had passed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The remaining regimental and battalion commanders in the 17th Luftwaffe Field Division were all Heer officers, who were veterans on the Eastern Front.
> 
> *Carver was posthumously awarded the George Cross, Great Britain's second-highest military award for valor, just below the Victoria Cross.


	54. Operation Spanner, June 8th-11th: A Save and a Loss

Already the crisis of the battle in the Orne River bridgehead had passed, a fact that was to elude the British 2nd Army for several more days. The British had been given a terrible fright, and for good reason. Their whole position east of the Orne River had been battered and staved in, and two battalions were still cut off behind German lines. The 81st Army Korps was in a similar mood by this point, although arrived at by a different route. Von Choltitz's attack had come within an ace of completely cutting up and eliminating the Orne River bridgehead, only to be beaten back at the last-minute arrival of the 4th Armoured Brigade, the tank equivalent of a strong panzer division. The 17th Luftwaffe Field Division had come almost close to disaster and was incapable of further offensive operations for the moment. Backing it up was the 711th Static Division. Kampfgruppe von Luck had been beaten back from the Orne River and its 4th Company/22nd Panzer Regiment was badly depleted. Fortunately, von Choltitz decided to transfer the 205th Panzer Replacement and Training Battalion from the 346th Infantry Division to reinforce von Luck's kampfgruppe. Only the gains of Kreutz's division seemed solid with the added profit of two British battalions in his rear.

Those two battalions became the preoccupation of both sides, the Germans to eliminate them and the British to rescue them. The Gordon Highlanders holding Touffreville by far were the greatest danger. Of the 1,300 men who crossed the Orne River on June 7th, there were fewer than 600 unhurt men on the morning of June 10th. They were also nearly out of ammunition and were using captured German weapons that were stripped off the dead. All night, the Germans of the 346th Infantry Division probed and attacked. After midnight, they sent in their first demand for the Gordon Highlanders to surrender. It was politely refused. At first light, the village of Touffreville disintegrated in the heaviest artillery barrage that the Gordon Highlanders had ever experienced. Immediately behind it came an attack by the 858th Grenadier Regiment in two directions with the 346th Panzerjager Battalion's ten StuG IIIG Assault Guns in the lead. This time, the Germans were in the village to stay. House by house, the men of both the 1st and the 5th/7th Gordon Highlanders Battalions resisted. The Germans would then bring up one of their ten StuG IIIG Assault Guns and demolish the house with its 75mm StuK 40 L/48 Cannon. By now, the British had no more ammo left. The German attack paused as another party advanced with a white flag. With more than 200 wounded on his hands and next to no ammunition left, the senior British officer present recognized the obvious and surrendered at 1142 that morning. The Germans rushed their medical personnel into Touffreville to care for the British wounded.  _Generalmajor_ Kreutz personally saw to the arrangements and shook hands with the British officers. He had a reason to be elated; 512 unhurt and 233 wounded British POWs from two famous battalions were his trophies of war.

Kreutz had other reasons to be glad that the Gordon Highlanders had surrendered. Both his 858th Grenadier Regiment and 346th Panzerjager Battalion that were tied down reducing the pocket was desperately needed to hold off the British relief force. Shortly after he began his final assault on the Gordon Highlanders, said relief force had also attacked to relieve both trapped battalions. Leading the way was the 2nd and 5th Seaforth Highlanders Battalions of the 152nd Infantry Brigade, which were reinforced by the tanks of the 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) of the 4th Armoured Brigade.

The task force was soon in serious trouble. Its drive to relieve the Gordon Highlanders had stalled almost immediately in the face of a stiff German defence. Von Choltitz had thrown his only available reserve in the fight: a battery of sixteen 88mm FlaK 36 L/56 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Guns supported by a local Luftwaffe MP company. Despite the determined support of the RAF, the Germans were firmly planted between the 152nd Infantry Brigade and the 1st and 5th/7th Gordon Highlanders Battalions in Touffreville. The 2nd and 5th Seaforth Highlanders Battalions were each supported by two tank squadrons of the 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters). Three separate attacks had been repulsed, leaving too many burning Sherman Vs and dead infantry in the fields. Among the German positions, there were also twisted 88mm FlaK 36s and dead Luftwaffe MPs, but there was still enough of them to shoot up anymore British attempts to cross the wide-beaten zone. As they were preparing for their fourth attempt in the early afternoon, a small German party came down the road from Touffreville under a flag of truce. With the German officer in charge was lightly-wounded British officer of the 1st Gordon Highlanders Battalion. With evident mortification, the young officer confirmed that the two battalions had surrendered. The historian of the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division was to write of that moment: 'The fact must be faced that at this period, the normal very high morale of the division fell temporarily to a low ebb'.


	55. Revenge for Omaha Beach (In-Progress)

The surviving elements of the U.S 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions that had been at sea when the Germans crushed Omaha Beach landed on June 7th at Gold Beach. The 26th and 175th Infantry Regiments were now the manoeuvre strength of the patched-up U.S 29th Infantry Division. The survivors of Omaha were being formed into a reconstituted 115th Infantry Regiment that would land in a few weeks. There had been some arguments at U.S 1st Army HQ whether to have this reconstituted division under the flag of the 29ers or the Big Red One. The former won out because of the loss of the commander and the entire HQ staff of the U.S 1st Infantry Division. The U.S 2nd Infantry Division, which was also to begin landing that day on schedule, was diverted to Gold Beach. The U.S 5th Corps was getting ashore after all, courtesy of the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division which had won its foothold on Gold Beach. The decision to land the American divisions scheduled for Omaha Beach had put a bad strain on the landing operations in the British 2nd Army's already crowded lodgement. The American and British forte in logistics management lubricated with a good deal of ad-hoc improvisation paid off. The price had greatly increased congestion along both the beaches and among the inland assembly areas and supply dumps. Behind the infantry divisions, the U.S 2nd Armored Division was next in line to land.

Major-General Charles Gerhardt wasn't a man to forgive for past injuries, and his nemesis was  _Generalleutnant_ Dietrich Kraiss, his German counterpart in the 352nd Infantry Division. He blessed the luck that gave him a second chance against Kraiss. That chance lay in the U.S 5th Corps' assignment to replace the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division between Port-en-Bessin and Bayeux, to destroy the German resistance between that line and Saint-Lo and Carentan, and to link up with the U.S 7th Corps pressing down from the north. Much of this was the original corps' mission. Now, it would be jumping off from the land rather than the sea. Gerhardt's first objective was to reduce Port-en-Bessin, which had held out against No. 47 (Royal Marine) Commando and been heavily-reinforced (1st and 3rd Battalions of the 726th Grenadier Regiment, the 439th Ost Battalion, 3rd Battalion/1716th Artillery Regiment, and 2nd Company/716th Pioneer Battalion) after the German success at Omaha Beach. The port itself would relieve the strain on Allied logistics over the shore. It was also the anchor on which the 352nd Infantry Division held the short line from Bayeux to the sea. Cut the anchor cable and the 352nd would leave its flank in the air. That was a serious consideration for Kraiss, his division's combat strength was down to 97% during the fighting for the last two days. The 12th SS Panzer Division had staved off disaster, acting as a fire brigade on June 7th when the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division attacked. Now, the Hitlerjugend had been pulled out of the line, and Kraiss was now holding a five-mile front. Fortunately, he had been reinforced by the 7th Nebelwerfer Brigade, and later by both the 902nd Assault Gun Brigade (equipped with thirty-one StuG IIIG Assault Guns) and the 30th Mobile Brigade (commanded by  _Oberstleutnant_ Hugo Freiherr von und zu Aufsess).

The 30th Mobile Brigade was made up of Gebirgsjagers (German mountain troops who were easily identified by the edelweiss insignia worn on their sleeves and their field caps) who were used as a QRF (Quick-Reaction-Force). The brigade consisted of the 513th, 517th and 518th Mobile Battalions, all of whom were bicycle-mounted. The 518th Mobile Battalion was also equipped with five Panzerjager 35R(f) Tank Destroyers.

By June 9th, the U.S 5th Corps' two divisions had relieved the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division. The U.S 29th Infantry Division were to the north and the U.S 2nd Infantry Division to the south of Bayeux. That morning, the attack went in. The U.S 2nd Infantry Division's 12th, 15th, 37th and 38th Field Artillery Battalions, the patched-up U.S 29th Infantry Division's 5th, 7th, 110th, 224th Field Artillery Battalions (a total of seventy-two 105mm M2A1 L/22 Light Field Howitzers and twenty-four 155mm M1 L/23 Medium Howitzers), supported by the U.S 5th Corps' 980th and 981st Field Artillery Battalions (each equipped with twelve 155mm M1 L/45 'Long Tom' Heavy Field Howitzers), all thundered on the dot at 1530. When the fire lifted, the commander of the U.S 2nd Infantry Division, Major-General Walter Robertson, slipped the leash on all three of its infantry regiments (9th, 23rd, 38th) in line. Each infantry regiment was reinforced with a company from the reconstituted 741st Tank Battalion. Gerhardt decided first to isolate Port-en-Bessin before attacking it. Preceded by the artillery barrage, the 175th Infantry Regiment broke through the German defences outside the port. The 115th Infantry Regiment wheeled northwest to keep the German flank from finding another anchor. The 26th Infantry Regiment then attacked the port from south along the road to Bayeux. The outer circle of MG42 nests and other weapon positions resisted desperately. The 26th Infantry Regiment was motivated by two powerful motives: revenge and shame.

The day before the U.S 5th Corps' attack, Eisenhower did something that wasn't in the books. He sent Lieutenant-General George S. Patton to Normandy to get a first-hand look at the patched-up U.S 29th Infantry Division and report back on its state. His visit to the Big Red One's orphan infantry regiment, as the 26th now called itself, would become the stuff of legend. For the 26th Infantry Regiment, Patton was family. He commanded them in Tunisia and Sicily. After the two slapping incidents when he had been ordered by Eisenhower to apologize to each and every division in the U.S 7th Army, the entire U.S 3rd Infantry Division had practically mutinied when ordered to form up to hear the old warrior's humiliation. No vile skulkers in a field hospital tent deserved any more consideration than the old man had given them.

Patton's simple report to Eisenhower on his visit: 'God help the Germans'.

It was the Germans who said goodbye to glory and all defences that afternoon. The 26th Infantry Regiment was nothing less than savage as they took only few POWs while cracking the outer defences. Rumors were rife among them that there had been a general massacre of POWs by the Germans at Omaha Beach (which was false), and they were sent on rough justice. Soon, the outer ring was gone and the 26th Infantry Regiment was in a killing frenzy that drained the courage out of the Germans. If it wasn't for Gerhardt's presence with the forward elements of the 26th, few POWs would have been taken. With his hand to steady them, the killing frenzy in the 26th Infantry Regiment drained away as quickly as the port's defences collapsed. But what took Gerhardt and his intel officers completely by surprise was that many of the POWs trudging out of Port-en-Bessin represented a real tower of Babel, speaking almost any language but German. They were members of the Ostruppen who had fought surprisingly well in many cases, more fearful of their German officers and NCOs than the Americans. At first, the number of oriental-looking POWs were mistaken for Japanese who were teaching the Germans on infiltration tactics, as if they needed it. Actually, they were Mongols, Koreans, Uzbeks and other people from the Eastern Soviet Union who had been captured by the Germans when they were fighting in the Red Army and were given the option to either fight for the Third Reich or starve to death in a POW camp. Seemingly betrayed by Allied newsreels which portrayed the enemy as the Aryan caricature, a Corporal in the 26th Infantry Regiment asked his company commander: 'Captain, just who the hell  _are_ we fighting anyway?'

Upon learning he was fighting against not one but  _two_ infantry divisions, Kraiss alerted his chain-of-command to the seriousness of his situation shortly after the U.S 5th Corps' attack. If the collapse of the front was to be avoided, reinforcements were needed immediately. Already, the 3rd Fallschirmjager Division's 5th Fallschirmjager Regiment and 3rd Fallschirm-Heavy Mortar Battalion were both approaching the sector. More were needed. Rommel ordered the 116th Panzer Division to leave its 156th Panzergrenadier Regiment in place to hold the line as the rest of the division swung around Bayeux and counterattack.

The 116th Panzer Division was formed in late March 1944 from the remnants of the 16th Panzergrenadier Division. This division, once the 16th Motorized Infantry Division, had been badly decimated during the Soviet counteroffensive around Stalingrad and although upgraded to panzergrenadier status, it had never really recovered from its losses. Ordered back to Germany for refitting, what was left of the 16th Panzergrenadier Division was converted into a fully-fledged panzer division by merging it with the recruits from the 179th Reserve Panzer Division, a replacement and training unit. The new panzer division didn’t retain its number though, for there already was a 16th Panzer Division in existence.

The division's 16th Panzer Regiment's 1st Battalion was still in training in Germany, so the division had to use the six Panther Ds* of 1st Battalion/24th Panzer Regiment from the 24th Panzer Division. The rest of the 16th Panzer Regiment was equipped with seventy Panzer IVHs and eleven Panzer IIIMs*. The division's 146th Panzer Artillery Regiment was equipped with six 105mm Wespe SPGs, twelve 149mm Hummel SPGs, twelve 105mm leFH 18/40 L/31 Light Field Howitzers, eight 149mm sFH 18 L/30 Heavy Field Howitzers, and four 105mm sK 18 L/52 Field Guns. The division's 228th Panzerjager Battalion was equipped with nine StuG IIIG Assault Guns, three Jagdpanzer IV Tank Destroyers, four Marder IIIM Tank Destroyers, four Marder III SdKfz 139 Tank Destroyers*, and twelve 75mm PaK 40 L/46 Anti-Tank Guns. However, the 116th Panzer Division's 281st Army FlaK Battalion was understrengthed with only twelve 20mm FlaK 38 L/65 Autocannons.

The 77th Infantry Division in front of the 12th SS Panzer Division was ordered to extend its front west to pickup some of the slack left by the 116th's move.

The 77th Infantry Division was formed in January 1944 in France as part of the 25th Mobilization Wave by absorbing both the divisional staff of the disbanded 355th Infantry Division and the surviving personnel of the shattered 364th Infantry Division. The division's 1049th and 1050th Grenadier Regiments each had three battalions. Strangely, they were equipped with Soviet-captured 76.2mm M1927 L/16.4 Regimental Infantry Guns instead of the standard 75mm leIG 18 L/11.2 Light Infantry Gun in the Grenadier Regiment's Heavy Infantry Gun Company along with the 149.1mm sIG 33 L/11 Heavy Infantry Guns. Also attached to the division were the 582nd and 627th Ost Battalions. The division's 177th Artillery Regiment was equipped with twenty-four 105mm leFH 18/40 Light Field Howitzers and twelve 88mm PaK 43/41 L/71 Anti-Tank Guns (being used in the field artillery role). And finally, the division's 177th Panzerjager Battalion was equipped with fourteen Marder IIIMs and twelve 20mm Gebirgsflak 38 L/65 Autocannons*.

By morning, these two formations were in place and ready to intercept the Americans between the Saint-Lo to Bayeux Road and Highway N13. The 352nd Infantry Division, along with the 902nd Assault Gun, 30th Mobile and 7th Nebelwerfer Brigades, were put in reserve. The 3rd Fallschirmjager Division (commanded by  _Generalmajor_ Richard Schimpf), which was being ferried from Brittany one subordinate unit at a time because it only had 45% of its authorized motor vehicles, was about to be a particularly unwelcome surprise for the U.S 5th Corps.

Formed in November 1943 in Eastern France, the 3rd Fallschirmjager Division had at its core a strong cadre from the original 6th Fallschirmjager Regiment, while the ranks & files were all volunteers from German paratrooper training schools and Luftwaffe ground personnel. The Division's main strength was its three Fallschirmjager regiments (5th, 8th and 9th), with three battalions in each regiment. Unlike their Heer counterparts in the infantry divisions, every Fallschirmjager division had a Fallschirm-Heavy Mortar Battalion in its order of battle. The 3rd Fallschirm-Heavy Mortar Battalion was fully-equipped with three heavy mortar companies with each company containing 105mm Nebelwerfer 35 Heavy Mortars, making it a total of thirty-six 105mm Nebelwerfer 35 Heavy Mortars in the battalion. The division's 3rd Fallschirm-Artillery Regiment had three battalions, each equipped with twelve 105mm leFH 18/40 Light Field Howitzers and nine 105mm LG42 L/18 Recoilless Guns*. The division's 3rd Fallschirm-Panzerjager Battalion was equipped with twelve 37mm PaK 36 L/45 Anti-Tank Guns armed with Stielgranate 41 Shaped-Charges, nine 75mm PaK 40 Anti-Tank Guns, and three 50mm PaK 38 L/60 Anti-Tank Guns. However, the 3rd Fallschirm-FlaK Battalion was still training back in Germany and had to use the 2nd Fallschirm-FlaK Battalion (equipped with eighteen 88mm FlaK 36 L/56 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Guns and eighteen 20mm Gebirgsflak 38 Autocannons) from the 2nd Fallschirmjager Division.

These German paratroopers (easily recognized by both their M38 Fallschirm-Helmet and their Splinter-B cameo pattern jump smocks) were an elite fighting force. Not only were Fallschirmjager units the best-equipped of any German ground force units, they were also imbued with a special paratrooper spirit, or Fallschirmjagergeist, that built a cohesion that was superior to any other in an armed forces that excelled in instilling cohesion. Their training emphasized on both initiative and improvisation, and constantly hammered home that they were an elite unit. The Fallschirmjager regiments were lavishly equipped with automatic weapons, with the 3rd Fallschirmjager Division having a total of 930, which was eleven times as many as the U.S 2nd Infantry Division. It also possessed two-and-a-half times as many 74mm Granatwerfer 42 Medium Mortars as an equivalent American division. Where a U.S rifle company would have nine M1918A2 BARs, nine M1/M1A1 Thompson SMGs, two M1919A4 LMGs, one M2HB HMG and three 60mm M2 Medium Mortars, a Fallschrimjager rifle company would have eighteen MG42s, forty-three MP40 SMGs or FG42 Automatic Rifles, and three 74mm Granatwerfer 42 Medium Mortars. The American rifle squad would have a single M1/M1A1 Thompson SMG and a M1918A2 BAR, whereas the Fallschrimjager rifle squad had two MG42s and three MP40 SMGs or FG42 Automatic Rifles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The Panther D was the first variant of the Panther tank to see combat. The D model can be best recognized by both its drum-shaped cupola and 'Letterbox' hull MG slot.
> 
> *By 1944, the Panzer III was an outdated design that was a light tank by all accounts. Units that weren't converted into StuG IIIs were sent to tank schools as training vehicles. Their unlikely appearance in France was the result of the 116th Panzer Division commandeering them in order to fill the gaps in their arsenal. They found a second life in the Normandy bocage, where they proved more at home than the heaviest cats due to being more maneuverable thanks to their size and less handicapped by their 50mm KwK 39 L/60 Cannons due to the short ranges of engagement.
> 
> *The SdKfz 139 was the Marder III variant armed with the 76.2mm PaK 36(r) L/54.8 Anti-Tank Gun*.
> 
> *The PaK 36(r) was the German designation for the Soviet 76.2mm M1936 (F-22) L/51.2 Divisional Field Gun that was converted into the anti-tank role by adding a muzzle brake to it and rechambering it to fire the more powerful 75x714mmR cartridge used in the 75mm PaK 40 L/46 Anti-Tank Gun.
> 
> *The Gebirgsflak 38 was a lightweight version of the 20mm FlaK 38 designed for the German paratroopers and mountain infantry. The main difference was that the carriage was smaller and lighter than the one used for the FlaK 38. The autocannon and carriage were designed to allow the weapon to be broken down into several pack loads for transport. But unlike the FlaK 38, the light carriage used by the Gebirgsflak 38 wasn't designed for high-towing speeds.
> 
> *I know that in real-life that the 3rd Fallschirm-Artillery Regiment's 2nd and 3rd Battalions were still in training back in Germany, but for the sake of this story, I'm putting them where the rest of the division is at.


End file.
